ORIGINAL SIN

In McMullen’s debut, a former spy tries to forget her past and lead a “normal” life as a Bay Area wife and mother—if only her past would forget her.

Right out of college, Lucy Parks was recruited by the USAWMD, a covert agency dedicated to tracking purveyors of Weapons of Mass Destruction. Code-named Sally Sin, she soon found herself dodging death all over the globe, from Afghanistan to Saigon, Budapest to Madrid, Cambodia to Cape Town. Her handler, Simon Still, trusts her to bring down the depraved nuclear-arms smuggler known as the Blind Monk, who wreaks mayhem while swathed in saffron. However, Ian Blackford, a former USAWMD asset who turned traitor and now traffics WMDs himself, has a nasty habit of turning up whereever Sally is and kidnapping her. The narrative ricochets back and forth between Sally’s past adventures and her present life as mother of three-year-old charmer Theo and wife of Will Hamilton, an environmental consultant whose biggest concern for his family is their carbon footprint. Sally has kept her employment history secret from Will, which was not a problem until recently: the fine print in her retirement contract requires Sally to remain on call for espionage. She is tapped by Simon to see what reclusive college professor Albert Malcolm is really up to in his lab, which may entail allowing Blackford, who is also sniffing around Prof. Malcolm, to abduct her again. After gaining entry to the lab, she photographs some documents, but there is no sign of Blackford. However, as much as she fears encountering him again, she has to admit that he does bear a passing resemblance to James Bond, in both the Connery and Brosnan incarnations. And the excuses she’s giving to Will for her increasingly frequent absences (while a rookie USAWMD agent babysits Theo) are wearing thin. Sally’s slapdash, offhand delivery is fun even though the exposition is laborious and the payoff too long delayed—perhaps anticipating the second planned Sally Sin Adventure.