Double Crossfire

September 16, 2019
Tata’s disappointing sixth Jake Mahegan novel (after 2018’s Dark Winter) focuses on Jake’s girlfriend, Army Ranger Capt. Cassie Bagwell, who’s at the Valley Trauma Center, a rehab facility in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains, where she’s recovering from wounds suffered in her last mission. All the women at the center are receiving mysterious injections and extensive military training. After a few months, Cassie escapes, somehow ending up in the North Carolina home of her godmother, Sen. Jamie Carter, who’s smarting from having lost the recent presidential election. Meanwhile, the Resistance, a shadowy organization that intends to take over the government, is plotting to kill the U.S. president and the vice president. An attempt on the life of the CIA director, whom Jake is protecting, amounts to a warning shot. Tata carefully sets up the intricate plot, but rushes through the action. This one reads like notes for a thriller rather than the fully realized series entry that the author usually delivers. Agent: Scott Miller, Trident Media Group.