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Abuse of Power by Michael Savage

Kirkus Reviews -

Routine thriller follows a journalist who elects to save the United States from terrorists—and from itself.

Plans to turn San Francisco into the next Ground Zero go awry when Jamal Thomas, a kid hoping to join a gang, hijacks a Prius. The driver gets away, but Jamal commandeers the vehicle, speeds into an intersection, collides with another car and suffers serious injury. Enter SFPD bomb-squad officer Tom Drabinsky, on a FAM trip with Jack Hatfield, who lost his gig as a right-wing radio commentator after the "liberal media elite" labeled him an "Islamaphobe." (Author Savage is a conservative talk-show host.) Drabinsnky is killed when a bomb in the car explodes, a bomb later determined to be of "military grade." Hatfield sniffs a cover-up—and a story that might put him back on top—when police arrest a group known as the "Constitutional Defense Brigade" and charge them with the bombing. Convinced an Islamic cell is up to something big, Hatfield appoints himself to uncover what's really at stake, a decision that comes as no surprise after several digressive editorial passages in which he makes clear he puts little or no trust inpolice, government and, to some extent, the church. (Frequently recalling Bible verses he finds reassuring, Hatfield makes clear he believes in some sort of divine wisdom.) After a group of men in dark suits take out Jamal, lest he describe the man driving the Prius, Hatfield obtains footage of their getaway car. Spotting a parking decal linked to Great Britain, Hatfield has no compunction about bribing a computer hacker to find out who the men are. Details in hand, he sprints to Israel and then to Great Britain to learn—and stop—what's afoot.

Ten years after 9/11, the tropes of terrorism thrillers wear thin. For fans of Fox News, Savage's right-wing POV (but little else) may lend some distinction.

The Affair by Lee Child

Publishers Weekly –

Child’s compelling 16th thriller featuring incorruptible vigilante Jack Reacher (after Worth Dying For) rewinds the clock to 1997 when Reacher was still a military cop and working on the case that led to his eventual break with the Army. Reacher must figure out whether the shocking murder of 27-year-old Janice May Chapman in Carter Crossing, Miss., has any connection with nearby Fort Kelham, where Army Rangers are trained. Reacher soon learns that two other women had their throats slit in the same way as Chapman, and the leading suspect is a Fort Kelham captain, whose father is a U.S. senator and diehard Army supporter. Reacher knows all too well the case has political trouble written all over it—and he and his Army bosses quickly butt heads over how it should be handled. Readers expecting new insight or details into Reacher’s background will be disappointed, but they’ll find all the elements—solid action, wry humor, smart dialogue—that have made this series so popular.

Double Dexter by Jeff Lindsay

Kirkus Reviews –

Two sociopaths are a crowd, as Miami-Dade forensic tech Dexter Morgan (Dexter is Delicious,2010, etc.) realizes when he's crowded by a wannabe who seems bent on taking over his gig as the bloody scourge of Miami's worst citizens.

Just as he's cleaning up the considerable mess after executing Puffalump, né Steve Valentine, the pederast clown who'd killed at least three little boys before meeting his doom, Dexter realizes he's been seen at work by someone driving a beat-up Honda. Once a series of unfortunate events allows the witness to connect a name to Dexter's face, he announces his intentions via e-mail. There's a new serial killer in town, smirks the unknown witness, and he intends to learn everything he can from Dexter and then toss his unwilling teacher aside. Of course, Dexter doesn't take this threat to his star billing lightly. His attempts to track down the witness go south, though, when he stumbles over a victim butchered in much the way he would have done the job and hears police sirens in the distance. Dexter escapes this crime scene to return to his wife Rita, who's obsessed with finding the perfect new house for their growing family—her daughter Astor, son Cody and newborn Lily Anne. But Dexter's latest nemesis, remaining one step ahead of him, commits a copycat murder that reopens a case Dexter's adoptive sister Deborah had just solved for Miami-Dade. This throws a deep professional shadow over both Debs and Dexter while the newbie plots his next move and Dexter wonders how he can kill his tormentor even though he's being dogged by his old enemy Sgt. Doakes, and his hands are swollen by poison ivy.

Lindsay, who remains less interested in mystery than in the archly virtuoso first-person narration of his appealingly monstrous Human Impersonator, provides another guilty pleasure. Really, really guilty.