BISHOP'S ENDGAME

CIA officers search for elusive truths in a world of startling secrets and double crossings in Beckner’s sequel.

It’s 2001, a decade after the events of Muir’s Gambit (2022). The CIA takes over the investigation of the murder of a Princeton University professor. The late Nathan Muir was once an agency recruiter, and now all of his agent networks are inexplicably gone—save for one agent. This mysterious man will only talk to CIA officer Tom Bishop, who’s in Malaysia, but the agency suspects that Bishop may actually be Muir’s killer. As Bishop hops off the grid overseas, the CIA sends attorney Russell Aiken to find him as his very first job in the field. Bishop, meanwhile, becomes entangled with a strange woman, and together they uncover secrets about Muir and other operatives with help from cryptic clues from the late Muir. Beckner’s novel, despite its length, moves at a steady clip. He masterfully bounces around the timeline, including events that occur days and sometimes months before Muir’s murder; it’s a labyrinthine approach but one that is always lucid. Aiken makes a compelling, edgy narrator who’s prone to blurting out seemingly random thoughts. He manages to recount Bishop’s side of things for readers, as well, and the plot gleefully spins off into a series of revelations and brief but explosive action scenes. Aiken likewise shines in offbeat moments of reflection: “Sometimes doing nothing is the best something to be doing because it leaves you open to something else.” As in the opening installment, Beckner deftly incorporates elements of the real world, from political figures to the 9/11 attacks, and leaves the storyline open for the trilogy’s finale.

A marvelous narrator ignites an engaging story of spies, deceit, and murky history.