Before Pike Logan and Jennifer Cahill can head to the dangerous area where Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay meet, joining Taskforce on a counterterrorism mission, a friend is killed in an explosion Pike knows was meant for him. Then Taskforce itself appears to be lost, and the race is on to counter a bunch of Russian assassins. With a 200,000-copy first printing.

Worries about Pike Logan's mental health among those close to him hover over bestseller Taylor's sturdy 14th novel featuring the head of the elite counterterrorism unit known as Taskforce (after 2019's Daughter of War). Pike and his love interest and partner in Taskforce, Jennifer Cahill, along with their 13-year-old charge, Amena, who was rescued in Syria, are targeted at their home in Charleston, S.C. Pike's mentor, Kurt Hale, gets blown up by a car bomb meant for Pike, setting the enraged Pike off on an unauthorized mission of vengeance. Meanwhile, a group of Russians are going down a list of assassinations in Brazil, where two of Pike's Taskforce team members are swept up in an unrelated terrorist kidnapping on a ferry. The wide-ranging plot has lots of moving parts, which initially slows the action, but the pace picks up once Pike calls in his Israeli married friends, Aaron and Shoshana Bergman, who as usual raise the excitement level as they wreak havoc. A big surprise on the last page will please series fans. Agent: John Talbot, Talbot Fortune. (Jan.)

Out for vengeance, an off-the-books task force of American special operators sets their crosshairs on a Russian clandestine hit squad. With his experience in Special Forces, retired Lt. Col. Taylor (Daughter of War, 2019, etc.) brings an unquestionable level of authenticity to his Pike Logan series of military thrillers. Relaxing alongside Jennifer Cahill, his romantic and business partner, Pike is at home in Charleston, South Carolina, when a dear mentor and brother in arms is killed in a car-bomb explosion that Pike is sure was meant for him. Then, Pike's sense of hypervigilance is piqued further when a Thai mercenary and old friend reaches out from the shadows to warn him that the threat is far from over. The web of intrigue becomes increasingly layered when Pike's elite unit, the Taskforce, which is already working in the tri-border region between Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay to quell Hezbollah activity, finds itself in the midst of a thick Russian plot. When the same ex-Russian Spetsnaz soldiers who were behind the attack at Pike's home also attempt to gain control of the Brazilian economy and political structure through a series of coordinated assassinations, Pike's quest for personal retribution and his sense of service to American foreign interests commingle. Throw in some former Israeli Mossad agents and the cast of international elite operators along with the level of bone-crushing violence is almost overflowing.A surefire hit for those who like contemporary foreign affairs spiced heavily with page-turning action. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.