cover image Cold Burn: A National Parks Thriller

Cold Burn: A National Parks Thriller

A.J. Landau. Minotaur, $28 (336p) ISBN 978-1-250-87736-9

In this solid sequel to Leave No Trace, Landau—a pseudonym for Jon Land and Jeff Ayers—brings National Park Service investigator Michael Walker and FBI agent Gina Delgado together again to avert worldwide catastrophe. Tech executive Axel Cole is planning the first manned mission to Mars. His hopes depend on a new fuel source called Prometheus, the pursuit of which overlaps with separate investigations undertaken by Walker and Delgado. Walker is working undercover on a cruise ship off Alaska’s coast, on the trail of thieves responsible for stealing precious artifacts from the Tlingit tribe. Delgado, meanwhile, is in the Everglades, looking into the murder of an intern working on an environmental project at the behest of the president’s chief of staff. Soon, Delgado learns that the intern’s killing is connected to the deaths of a cutting-edge Navy submarine’s entire crew and an alarming shift in the pattern of vital ocean currents. For backup, she calls Walker, and eventually, both of their inquiries point back to Cole, whose pursuit of Prometheus threatens to bring about global climate collapse. Landau treads familiar ground , but keeps the pages turning without sacrificing plausibility. Michael Crichton fans will enjoy themselves. (Apr.)