CHINA STRIKE

A bizarre international incident triggers the hunt for an elusive and dangerous cybercriminal.

Angrily driving home after getting abruptly fired from the graveyard shift at his Brooklyn factory, Anthony Gibson inexplicably loses control of his car as he hears other cars crash all around him. Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent Dominic Verrazzano tries to help him, but the agent's only reward is hearing Gibson’s dying words. Other equally mysterious crashes span the globe, racking up a huge death toll. Remarkably, all the crashes involve cars made by the Darien Motor Company, based in suburban Detroit. Others on the scene in Brooklyn include FBI operative Gina Jahn and a handful of officials from various agencies battling for control over the ensuing probe. Nearby, at the Brooklyn Detention Center, a man named Tom Frisch, recently taken into custody for an assassination attempt on the president, claims to have valuable intel. Then Frisch is reported dead, hit by a truck while trying to escape, and the agent who was supposed to be transferring him to ICE custody, Bill Todd, is still missing. Jahn and Verrazzano find Todd trapped in Frisch's cell; Frisch is located via a tracking device and recaptured. Since Frisch has been reported dead, Verrazzano is now free to use him as bait and informant, as long as he can hold onto him. They fly with Jahn to Detroit, where their suspicions about terrorist involvement are confirmed. The evidence hints at links to China and possibly Russia. A similar plan meanwhile targets a car company in central Europe. The dash to avert another disaster also takes the agents to Lebanon and Germany in the proverbial race against the clock.

Rees’ second ICE thriller (The Damascus Threat, 2016), long on action, moves at breakneck speed.