THE ATROPOS MAKER II

In this second installment of a thriller series, an American black-ops agency vows to rescue children from human traffickers.

Norma Veurr, co-director of the black-ops group Atropos, thwarts a hit against her son, Alexander. Later, she and two other Atropos members face armed assailants in Washington, D.C., where the organization is headquartered. To protect bystanders, Norma and the others willingly go with their attackers, who subsequently hold them captive and torture them. Though Norma survives the ordeal, someone close to her dies. As she plots retaliation against the individual behind the attack on Atropos, a waitress named Elizabeth needs the team’s help. Her 4-year-old son, Charlie, is missing, and it’s soon clear that child traffickers have taken him. As it happens, the same terrorist cell that’s been trying to take out the black-ops group has ties to the culprits. Norma and her team, including Alexander, track the bad guys to Iraq and other countries. They keep their eyes out for Charlie while saving numerous abducted kids along the way. Meanwhile, Alexander struggles with telling his mother that he’s in love with a civilian, a relationship to which both Atropos and Norma may object. Lujan’s hard-hitting story features a fair amount of violence. For example, the villains’ torture of Atropos members is particularly ferocious, though Norma and her team are no less brutal when they’re questioning terrorists. Concurrently, there are quieter, deeper moments with certain characters, from Alexander’s secret romance to Norma’s abusive childhood paralleling the trafficking victims. The hunt for terrorists as well as the search for Charlie sparks an unwavering narrative pace. Nevertheless, though Norma’s physical prowess makes for exhilarating combat scenes, descriptions of the action are occasionally baffling. In several instances, armed individuals inexplicably don’t fire, or they engage in fisticuffs rather than using their guns.

An entertaining, if sometimes bewildering, action tale that moves at a steady clip.