Golden resident and former CIA employee Francine Matthews – also known as Stephanie Barron, author of the Jane Austen mystery series – has avoided the sophomore jinx by writing a bang-up sequel to “Cutout,” a debut thriller with some pacing problems.
Having been hung out to dry by her boss, Scottie Sorensen, the CIA’s chief of counterterrorism, “Blown” finds Field Agent Caroline Carmichael cleaning out her desk in preparation for the tendering of her resignation.
But when Daniel Becker, who claims to be part of the domestic terrorism cell 30 April Organization, commits two acts of terrorism, one against a high-ranking government official and another against a group of Marines, Carmichael is called back into active duty.
In 2001’s “The Cutout,” Carmichael mixed it up with the 30 April Organization, managing to take out its leader (this history is ably rehashed, in case some readers missed that book). So in addition to waging a nearly one-man war against the U.S. government, Becker has also targeted Caroline for some high-profile retribution. And Caroline must contend with a killer who could very well be a familiar face in her Washington haunts.
While doing her best to catch this madman before he strikes again, Caroline must contend with the stress of knowing her husband, Eric, who was once thought to be a victim of 30 April, is now believed to be a double agent, working for the organization’s European cell. At Sorensen’s behest, Eric has been working for many years as a “legend” (an agent who has adopted a false identity so perfectly, so completely, that he or she is believed to be dead).
When his undercover mission starts to unravel, Eric quickly becomes a target for both the terrorists and Sorensen, who believes he has become a liability.
Now that she has found her thriller “feet,” Matthews hits the ground running, coming across like an interesting mix of Robert Ludlum and Thomas Harris. And her main characters (Caroline and Eric Carmichael, CIA chief Sorensen, the strange, left-of-center genius Raphael Alighieri) are just quirky enough to avoid being pegged as pro-forma thriller caricatures. After only two novels, all three seem assured of eking out their own niches in the popular audience’s memory.
From its gotta-read-more opening line – “On the day she was chosen for death, Dana Enfield rose early and made coffee for her husband in the hushed November dawn” – and the unique terrorist scenario that Matthews uses to kick off the novel, to the deadly cat-and-mouse games that lead to a denouement that revels in piling one surprise on top of another, “Blown” is an edge-of-your-seat summertime thriller. It will have veteran writers of best-selling suspense novels glancing over their shoulders.
Dorman T. Shindler, a freelance writer from Missouri, is a regular contributor to several magazines and newspapers.
Blown
By Francine Matthews
Bantam, 336 pages, $24
