cover image The Last Agent

The Last Agent

Robert Dugoni. Thomas & Mercer, $25.95 (464p) ISBN 978-1-5420-1497-7

Retired American spy Charles Jenkins is feeling angry and embittered in bestseller Dugoni’s fast and furious sequel to 2019’s The Eighth Sister. Recently cleared of treason charges brought by the CIA, he’s determined to live a quiet life with his family, until he learns that Russian spy Paulina Ponomayova is being held in Moscow’s Lefortovo Prison. Since Paulina, who was in fact a double agent for the CIA, once saved his life, Jenkins sets out to rescue her. To achieve this impossible feat, Jenkins turns to Viktor Federov, the former FSB officer who relentlessly pursued him across Russia and Europe in the previous book. Federov has lost everything after failing to apprehend Jenkins, becoming a scapegoat for his government. Whether Federov and several others along the way can be trusted is a constant concern as Jenkins tries to get to Paulina and smuggle her out of the country. Dugoni writes with such immediacy that readers will feel as if they’re standing alongside Jenkins as he contemplates his next death-defying move. Fans of espionage fiction are in for a high-octane thrill ride. Agent: Meg Ruley, Jane Rotrosen Agency. (Sept.)