MEDUSA

Just when you thought it was safe to go in the water, a jellyfish the size of Brooklyn appears.

Did Tim Diamond really see his nine-year-old neighbor, the bratty Pearl, drown while clasped in the tentacles of a sea monster, or is her brother Henry to blame? No matter: Henry disappears, and Tim is taken into custody. His sister Venus, a Fish and Wildlife agent (K Falls, 2001, etc.), believes him, sort of, and soon finds herself smack in the middle of a Russian car-smuggling ring whose members think nothing of chopping off right hands; a childnapping and debauching scheme; and a romantic liaison between her movie-star mom’s mega-mogul neighbor, Nils Pederson, and the wily Cherry, a scientist determined to produce the world’s most virulent toxin for fun and profit. Meanwhile, ships are being blown up port and starboard, a protection racket is menacing local businesses, more kids are dying, a few people besides Tim are scared witless by that supersized jellyfish, and Venus must turn to an elderly Chinese for help in corralling greedy terrorists.

Everything but the kitchen sink—an abstemious departure for Moody, who usually throws that in too.