The FBI and the CIA tangle as a cold case heats up. Manhattan-based reporter Mia Briscoe can never forget her best friend, Serena Winters, who vanished from a fraternity rave seven years earlier. Even though Serena's boyfriend's father was an FBI agent, no trace of her was ever found, and Mia continues to think she was raped and murdered by someone at the party. When she's given the job of covering the mayoral campaign of Alexander Talbot Harrington, a wealthy Bostonian with an equally ambitious fiancee, Mia never suspects that the job will be connected to Serena's disappearance. In Washington, FBI Agent Savich takes on the case of CIA agent Olivia Hildebrandt, recently released from the hospital after a mission gone wrong, who killed one of the two men trying to kidnap or kill her. Olivia's teammate and lover, Mike Kingman, escaped Iran with a flash drive and is in hiding. Both of them are certain that they were betrayed by someone inside the agency. Fighting off attempts by the CIA to keep the case to itself, Savich moves Olivia to a safe house. Savich's wife, the talented FBI agent Sherlock, is sent to New York to help with a tricky case and becomes involved in Mia's quest, which has blossomed after a friend sends old pictures taken at the fraternity party that lead to a shocking and dangerous discovery. Coulter's patented two-case structure serves her well despite the absence of any heightened sense of danger. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

A missing person's case kicks off bestseller Coulter's nail-biting 25th FBI thriller (after 2020's Deadlock). Journalist Mia Briscoe has never forgotten her college friend Serena, who disappeared at a rave seven years earlier. When another college friend contacts Mia after discovering photos of the rave on an old phone, Mia turns to FBI agent Lacey Sherlock for help in finding Serena. The stakes rise when it appears that one of the men at the rave was a blue-blooded politician whose race for New York City mayor Mia happens to be covering. Meanwhile, Lacey's FBI agent husband, Dillon Savich, is looking into an attack on a CIA agent and how it might be linked to the disappearance of another CIA agent and the flash drive he got from an operative who was killed in Iran. The danger intensifies for Savich and Sherlock as they get closer to uncovering the answers to their respective investigations. Coulter does her usual fine job of building suspense by shifting between the parallel narratives. This long-running thriller series shows no sign of losing steam. Agent: Robert Gottlieb, Trident Media Group. (Aug.)

In the twenty-fifth entry in Coulter's FBI Thriller series, investigative reporter Mia Briscoe discovers shocking new evidence in the unexplained disappearance of one of her friends seven years earlier. Teaming with FBI agent Lacey Sherlock, Mia digs for the truth but quickly finds that there are people who are seriously determined to make sure that truth remains buried. Meanwhile, Sherlock's partner and husband, Dillon Savich, investigates a vicious attack on a CIA operative who recently returned from a mission in Iran. Two seemingly unconnected cases? Not really. Coulter, who's been writing her FBI novels since The Cove in 1996, has her game plan pretty much down to a science now. She knows who her characters are, and what motivates them, and she knows what kind of adversary to put up against them. But though the novels follow a pattern, these are not thin, tiresomely formulaic thrillers. They are suspenseful and surprising, and they have earned their large following. Vortex will be received enthusiastically.

In the 25th Sherlock-Savich outing, FBI agent Lacey Sherlock is asked by journalist Mia Briscoe to look into the suspicious, years-ago disappearance of a friend at a frat party, while FBI agent Savich investigates the case of CIA operative Olivia Hildebrandt. Nearly blown to shreds in an abortive mission in Iran, Olivia is saved by a team member who then vanishes; later, Olivia is pursued by two killers. With a 200,000-copy first printing.