JUDAS HORSE
by April Smith
A demonic ride through undercover terrain with FBI agent Ana Grey.
When bits of agent Steve Crawford are found by a hiker in the Cascades, Ana Grey, newly reassigned to active duty after a post-shootout hiatus (Good Morning, Killer, 2003), is sent undercover as Darcy DeGuzman to infiltrate Free Animals Now, the domestic terrorist cell Crawford had been watching. She connects with hazelnut farmers/activists Megan Tewsbury and Julius Emerson Phelps, whose fingerprints identify them as a former ’70s Berkley professor demonized by the FBI and rogue agent Dick Stone, who loved her enough to switch sides. Stone is planning what he calls the Big One, but before she can uncover what that means, Ana must decide whom to trust. The two street kids helping on the farm seem like loose cannons; the itinerant cowboy may not be what he seems; and Ana even has doubts about the higher-ups at the Bureau, including her minder Donnato and bigwig politico Peter Abbott. Ana and Stone, undercover for different reasons, must sidestep treachery from every direction. At length a Waco-flavored standoff leaves a despairing Ana to fly away with the slimmest of support systems.
Smith creates an undercover training regime for Ana that the FBI might do well to emulate. She’s so expert at implanting stress that you could become bipolar just from reading one chapter. Feisty, disturbing and exceptionally well done.