Second Bianca St. Ives Thriller from Karen Robards, THE MOSCOW DECEPTION

Move over, James Bond and Jack Reacher. There's a woman racing around the world using her genetically modified strength and hard-earned analytical skills to fight for her freedom and a bit more justice overall, and she's fast, smart, and determined. Welcome to the practiced hands of author Karen Robards:

Bianca St. Ives, a DC-area entrepreneur with an amazing tech team, just wants a chance to live and earn her living -- without the presence of her often creepy father figure and the criminal masterminds constantly searching for him. And oh yes, the American government and other special teams hunting for her, too, under her earlier names. Her biotech background, revealed fully in the first book of this thriller series, The Ultimatum, and sketched again here in THE MOSCOW DECEPTION, makes her a target for total disappearance (yes, death and more).

But Bianca's always been willing to take risks, and in this case that means getting back in touch with Mason Thayer -- not actually her father after all, but still the man who knows the most about her past and about the target on her back. The book's title refers to the trade Thayer proposes if she wants his help in surviving: an expert jewel theft she'll need to commit in Moscow, with another hand-picked team eager to share the financial rewards of what she has in mind.

If she was being targeted, if she was being hunted, her best bet might be to shut down the company, put the condo on the market, and go.

Could anybody say, run for your life?

The thought was unutterably depressing.

So don't think about it. For now, just keep putting one foot in front of the other.

Bianca's reasoning and her allies can only take her so far -- and then she'll need a bit better luck than she'd had lately. The question is, would reconnecting with the mysterious but physically alluring Colin Rogan, a presumed MI6 agent who's tracking her, improve her luck -- or send her spiralling into prison or worse?

Great summer reading, adventurous, quickly paced, and just wild enough to suspend skepticism and take the wild ride that a Bianca St. Ives thriller from Karen Robards (and Mira, Harlequin's mystery and thriller imprint) demands.

PS:  Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.

Brief Mention: VANISHING GAMES, Roger Hobbs

In 2013 Roger Hobbs won the prestigious CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for his debut thriller, Ghostman. An acknowledged master of suspense, Hobbs positioned the criminally skilled Jack -- gambling under the name "Jacques Fisher" in an Oregon casino as VANISHING GAMES opens -- within a dark underworld rooted in Macau and Hong Kong. In this second book, Jack's "jugmarker" (the person who plans and directs a serious criminal caper) needs him to come back to the region, this time operating in the South China Sea. It's been years, and Jack and Angela, each a superb performer with appearance shifts and high-tech protection, have changed so much that they might not have known each other if they'd passed in an airport.

Very few people know how to contact Jack. But Angela still can, and does, when a standard heist of gemstones goes seriously awry and her life and operations are under extreme threat.

I had not read Ghostman before this second book, and I enjoyed the swift action and insight (imagined? real??) into a world of international jewel theft. Hobbs doesn't yet paint depth of character successfully, but his maneuvers, twists, and discoveries make for a page-turning read (with a lot of gore), and Jack and Angela's collaboration has long-term possibilities. I prefer more layers in my protagonists, but I'm willing to keep following this series on the assumption that Hobbs will deepen as he keeps writing.

I just wish I knew someone who could verify for me that the global thievery networks do operate the way Hobbs shows them. No, actually, on second thought, I'm relieved that I don't know anyone caught up in so much violence. I'd rather read about it, and hope it's uncommon in real life.

For VANISHING GAMES, thank goodness, we're not going to meet the ghostman, or the jugmarker, living down the street. This is hard-boiled crime writing at its most forceful; don't expect any happy endings or intervals to last!