NOBODY'S HERO

Former U.S. Marshal Ben Koenig, now an independent intelligence operative, is out to prevent the dire fate predicted by a newly discovered protocol, but the $5 million bounty on his head adds unwanted…complications.

For most men in his position, the threat of being rubbed out would create fear, but Koenig has a rare genetic syndrome making him incapable of it. He also has no compunctions about killing people, as he demonstrates while making quick work of four armed opponents with a sharpened credit card. Comparisons to Lee Child’s Jack Reacher, who gets a shoutout from Koenig, are encouraged. Unlike Reacher, Koenig has a sardonic, quick-witted, wise-guy attitude that cuts through any and all situations. The story gets underway with a double murder and abduction carried out on the streets of London by a mysterious woman who appears to be homeless. Koenig identifies her as the person whose faked death he helped stage a decade ago—and who is now in possession of crucial secrets. Teamed with intelligence operative Jen Draper, who hates his guts, he’s in constant motion, crossing international borders and dealing variously with corrupt British cops, the colorfully named father-and-daughter hit team of Stillwell Hobbs and Harper Nash, a cold-blooded military contractor, and the Russian crime syndicate that put out a bounty on him for killing the son of one of their bosses. Craven’s second Koenig novel, following Fearless (2023), is a razor-sharp, adrenalized effort with complicated but satisfying twists and turns. In the early going, the book boasts a bit of an experimental edge with its maze-like narrative, leading you to believe the author—fearless himself—has read the work of Italian master Italo Calvino. But the socko ending leaves all such concerns in the dust.

A new kind of espionage thriller with plenty of old-school action and violence.