Insidious

Publishers Weekly 06/27/2016 Two complex cases propel bestseller Coulter’s absorbing 20th FBI thriller featuring married FBI agents Dillon Savich and Lacey Sherlock (after 2015’s Nemesis). In Washington, D.C., businesswoman Venus Rasmussen, who still runs Rasmussen Industries at age 86, believes that it isn’t just her old-lady stomach the third time she suffers from food poisoning. She’s certain, as she tells Savich, that someone close to her wants her dead. No one is above suspicion as Savich and Sherlock investigate Venus’s family members and her staff. Meanwhile, a serial killer out of Los Angeles breaks pattern and murders a young actress in Las Vegas, Nev. The MO is identical to four previous murders of young and up-and-coming Hollywood actresses. Savich dispatches agent Cam Wittier, who’s highly recommended by Sherlock, to L.A. to assist the local police. As the body count rises, Cam desperately searches for links among the victims and a motive. Coulter keeps the two plot lines equally engaging—and the reader guessing—all the way to the satisfying resolution of each. Agent: Robert Gottlieb, Trident Media Group. (Aug.)