Deep Strike

When a terrorist kills the American U.N. ambassador and his security detail in Campbell’s taut if flawed sixth Trident Deception thriller (after 2019’s Treason), CIA director Christine O’Connor is shocked to discover the assassin is former Navy SEAL Lonnie Mixell, a close friend from her youth who later served time for killing insurgent prisoners. Christine enlists her former fiancé, Jake Harrison, Mixell’s SEAL teammate and the main witness who sent Mixell to prison, to track him down. Intent on revenge for his incarceration, Mixell devises a plan to attack the U.S. with the financial backing of ISIS and the help of Capt. Aleksandr Plecas, commander of the Kazan, the latest Russian nuclear submarine. While Harrison tracks Mixell across the globe, Plecas plays a cat-and-mouse underwater game with American submarines pursuing the Kazan as he moves within range of his U.S. targets. The vivid submarine action and confident, skilled female characters make up only in part for a nonsensical plot twist that sours an otherwise exciting ending. Hopefully, Campbell will return to form next time. Agent: John Talbot, Talbot Fortune Agency. (Mar.)