Hidden Order: A Thriller
In Thor's latest, an assassin is viciously reducing the short list of candidates for the top job at the Federal Reserve, and it's up to rugged, hypereffective private intelligence operative Scot Harvath to halt the hits. He and a small band of associates—including his outspoken boss, Reed Carlton, and Boston detective Lara Cordero—are pitted against the wealthy and powerful members of a secret cabal. Armand Schultz makes good use of no-frills narration to deliver the author's prose crisply, while smartly adjusting his pacing during action sequences, dialogue-rich scenes, and paragraphs detailing events in American history. His aging Carlton is gruff and demanding. The head villains snarl. The women are treated to acceptable upper-register voices. And other characters are provided appropriate accents—for example, an exaggerated, gravelly Boston dialect for a Southie-born, hardboiled detective. As for Harvath, Schultz speaks in a confident, low rumble that softens in the course of the operative's romance with Cordero, who, at book's end, is strong enough to suggest a big change in his future. An Atria/Emily Bestler hardcover. (July)--This text refers to an alternateAudio CDedition.