Time to Hunt: A Pierce Hunt Thriller

Early in Gervais’s exciting if uneven third Pierce Hunt thriller (after 2019’s Trained to Hunt), Dorothy Triggs, the deputy director of the CIA’s Directorate of Operations and her son, Max Oswald, her right-hand man in the directorate, pay an unannounced call on former DEA agent Hunt in the Bahamas, where he’s living the easy life with his girlfriend and 16-year-old daughter. Triggs wants Hunt to find his pal Charlie Henican, who has gone missing in Turkey while there to assassinate narco-terrorist Jorge Ramirez. Hunt agrees, but after Triggs and Max leave Hunt’s house, gunmen ambush their car in a kidnapping attempt. Triggs is wounded and Max escapes, though initially his mother thinks he’s been killed. Hunt is taken off the Henican case and sent to Switzerland, where Ramirez is now, to complete the job his friend started. Meanwhile, Hunt must contend with another major bad guy, who has a highly implausible motive for committing his evil deeds. The abundance of action compensates for some head-scratching plot confusion. Gervais consistently entertains, but occasionally baffles. Agent: Eric Myers, Myers Literary Management. (Nov.)