The Last Sentinel: A Clayton White Thriller

Gervais’s plodding sequel to 2021’s The Last Protector opens in Iraq, where Clayton White, an Air Force captain who’s training Iraqi commandos, joins a U.S. mission to kill Mohsen Ashtari, an Iranian general. That the general is being guarded by his Quds Force son, Maj. Reza Ashtari, doesn’t prevent White from killing the father. Flash forward eight years. Clayton is on a research ship with his fiancée, Veronica Hammond, the daughter of the American vice president, who initiated the plot against the Iranian general. In Iran, Reza is working at the Ministry of Intelligence and Security with his brother who’s in charge of a mission to assassinate the vice president and at the same time kill White. The whole enterprise feels dated with its stock characters and shopworn themes, including the valiant hero defending his woman, the revenge-seeking son, and the perfidious vice president. Constant references to the first book annoy more than they illuminate. Genre readers are advised to look elsewhere for their thriller fix. Agent: Eric Myers, Myers Literary Management. (Aug.)