Mistaken Identity

Suspended FBI agent Jenny Roberts, who played a supporting role in Thriller Award–finalist Sherer’s Stolen Identity, takes center stage in this superior sequel. Feeling scapegoated and shunned by the FBI, Jenny decides to visit her family in rural Wisconsin, and boards a Chicago-bound train in Washington, D.C., as do two strangers: bullied executive assistant Dana Carlisle, who looks a lot like Jenny, and Mick Costanza, a thug from Jennie’s hometown, who has stolen his mobbed-up boss’s cellphone, which is chock-full of evidence of power brokers’ sexual and financial shenanigans and the gruesome murder of a shady congressman. Various villains, including some Russian mobsters, confuse Dana with Jenny, who become a Thelma and Louise–style team on the run to thwart further mayhem. Sherer keeps the live wires of his complex plot sparking and distinct. Jenny is a ticked-off but highly capable heroine, whose family of cops adds depth and texture so that motivation and revelation keep coming to the very end. This is a sharp and satisfying thriller. (Oct.)