Ice Cold Kill
*Starred Review* After shedding her skin as a Shin Bet operative, Daria Gibron is happily juggling double lives in the U.S., shrewdly masking an FBI covert ops gig with her cover as a high-demand interpreter. Past experience has taught her that it’s dangerous to get comfortable, however, and she’s barely surprised when a meeting with an undercover operative friend morphs into an elaborate frame-up. Cast as a rogue agent providing arms for Syrian Khalid Belhadj’s alleged plot to assassinate the U.S. president, Daria finds her American alliances instantly destroyed when she’s red-lighted by the CIA. After a bit of spying reveals the set-up’s mastermind as a cunning Israeli operative seemingly resurrected from the dead, it’s clear that she’s being used as a distraction from a larger plot that’s completely off the CIA’s radar. Dodging various well-armed international intelligence groups, Daria teams with Belhadj, albeit uneasily, to track the terrorists. Haynes steers the array of heavy themes (Arab Spring, biological weapons, child soldiers, and secret societies) into a strong, complicated plot as believable as any real-life terrorist threat. Daria is destined to become a favorite in the growing arsenal of female thriller leads. She combines brains and experience to craft unbeatable strategy, and she has the requisite combat skills to quash any agent in her path as well as a witty, moderately well-adjusted (under the circumstances) perspective that’s sure to charm. --Christine Tran