IT ENDS WITH KNIGHT

Quite a change for professional Network assassin Nena Knight: Despite her protests, her father packs her off on a complicated diplomatic mission.

The Tanzanian village of Latema is sitting on an enormously valuable tanzanite mine that American entrepreneur Frances Dubin—a textbook racist and sexist whose French wife, Bridget, delivered Nena to traffickers when she still was a child—is itching to develop and expand. The national government, in the persons of Prime Minister Samwell Asogi and minister of mining Farida Odemba, wants a piece of the action. Councilman David Tegete is running point among Dubin, the government officials, and the miners, whose spokesperson is charismatic Robin Hood figure Judah Wasira. Ignoring Nena’s apt observation that “she wasn’t one for diplomacy or too much conversation,” Noble Knight assigns her and her crew—Eritrean American Network colleague Femi, high-level South African op Billy Thom, and tech specialist Evers, ne Everlasting Nevermind Chinoba—to make sure the negotiations go smoothly, do their best to prevent the villagers from being cheated, and cover Tegete’s back. Readers of the first two installments of Nena’s adventures won’t be surprised when everything goes wrong: A suspicious accident makes the mine distinctly less marketable, several important parties are shot, a child is kidnapped, and the ransom demanded, apart from a paltry $2 million, is a one-sided mining deal that’s unfair to everyone but whomever hired the kidnappers. Luckily, Nena is now in her element, since every problem this new turn of events poses can be solved with condign violence, even though the story could well have ended before the last few twists.

Watch your back, Liam Neeson. This avenger is tough.