THE WOLVES

This adrenaline-filled thriller pits ex–CIA man John Wells against formidable foes.

Multibillionaire Aaron Duberman has tried and failed “to fake the United States into a war” with Iran in order to help Israel. Wells stopped the plan and now “has made a mission of destroying Duberman’s life.” But they are gunning for each other, and neither man will ever be safe while the other is alive. Wells fans know from earlier novels (The Counterfeit Agent, 2014, etc.) that the ex–CIA man is a convert to Islam. Of course, some people will always suspect him for his conversion. In the White House, the president asks Wells to kill Duberman, who believes it’s “his right to start a war.” Meanwhile, Duberman feels unsafe in his Hong Kong home and hopes to gain political asylum in Russia because he’s being kicked out of Israel. Sure, he didn’t amass a $30 billion fortune without making some enemies, but it’s really best that Wells not be one of them. So the two mortal adversaries are after each other in “not an assassination, or even a sniping, but a slow-motion duel.” The billionaire isn’t the only threat, however. Arms dealer Mikhail Buvchenko, who “sold death for a living,” hates Wells, so of course each wants to kill the other. And crossing everyone’s paths is Chinese Gen. Cheung Han, who wants to make China’s air force the strongest in the world. The man is a pedophile for whom no girl is too young. Too bad for him he’s in the same novel as Wells, who is not much given to mercy in a showdown.

Fans of the John Wells series won’t be disappointed. They’ll agree with his enemies that if Wells isn’t Superman, he’s super something.