WATER MEMORY

An unusually active risk management agent sent home to rest embarks on a tropical cruise that drops her into hotter waters than ever.

Everyone at Solomon Systems agrees that Aubrey Sentro needs a break after her dramatic rescue of kidnapped software exec Scott Chang, and they don’t even know about her recent diagnosis with persistent post-concussion syndrome, which affects her memory in dramatic and unpredictable ways. Forced to use some of her accumulated vacation days, Sentro books passage aboard the Jeddah, a working steamer that carries a few passengers. Though she can’t even remember most of their names from meal to meal, Sentro becomes unexpectedly close to outspoken Fontaine Fox just in time for heavily armed pirates to board the ship and terrorize passengers and crew alike. Despite their apparent amateurism, identical twins Pauly and Castor Zeme are no ordinary pirates: They’re acting on behalf of someone who’s after much more than the usual cash, credit cards, jewelry, and valuables. As Pyne keeps reminding you, however, Sentro is no ordinary victim either, and her reaction when the Jeddah is boarded sparks the first of many violent sequences so unforgettable that even she might end up remembering them. If only her adult children, Jeremy and Jennifer Troon, could be persuaded to stand down from involving themselves personally in the mercenaries’ ransom demand, her story would end much more quietly—but what would be the fun in that?

Pyne keeps expertly mixing up his pitches long after you’ve stopped expecting anything but blazing fastballs.