Tess Gerritsen’s third installment in her Martini Club series, The Shadow Friends, opens with a horrific scene that happened years ago. CIA agent Ingrid Slocum is holed up in France, protecting a young woman who is defecting from Russia, when all breaks loose. People die and Ingrid is sure one of the killers escaped. Former spies are never able to leave the past behind, but why is someone out for revenge, showing up now in, of all places, Purity, Maine?
Ingrid is running the annual Stone Coast Conference focused on global catastrophes, including everything from nuclear war to another pandemic. One of the speakers, Dr. Mikhail Maslov, is set to be the main speaker on the second day of the event. When he doesn’t show up, Ingrid asks her friend, Maggie Bird, also ex-CIA, to check on him. Entering his hotel room, Maggie finds Dr. Maslov on the floor, barely breathing. Her training kicks in and she begins CPR. Dr. Maslov was recently in Uganda where he was treating Ebola patients. Until doctors can discover what happened to him, Maggie must go into isolation.
Meanwhile, Jo Thibodeau, Purity’s police chief, is asked to check on a missing woman. Karen O’Brien, one of the waitresses at the Cod Cover Resort, failed to show up for work and isn’t answering her cellphone. Jo shows up at the resort, where Ingrid’s conference is being held, and learns about Dr. Maslov and Maggie. Ingrid finds out about the missing woman and her antennae go up. She and Jo locate Karen’s car with the waitress’s body in the trunk. When Ingrid sees how Karen died, she flashes back to that day in France.
The Russians have long memories. A spy who betrays Putin is targeted for death, no matter where or when. Turns out that Dr. Maslov fit that profile. After years spent hiding, he felt it was safe to resume a normal life. He was wrong.
The other agent on that case with Ingrid, Rodrigo Estrada, has shown up in Purity. Ingrid now knows why. Once they were lovers, but Ingrid has been married to Lloyd for 28 years. Nothing could pull her back into the life she left behind, except…Thinking about the agents who died in France and the fact that one Russian escaped, Ingrid can’t say no to Rodrigo. Leaving a brief note to Lloyd – “I need to leave. I’ll explain later” – she joins Rodrigo on the mission.
Lloyd worked for the CIA as an analyst and was never in the field. Afraid of losing Ingrid, he tells the Martini Club he’s going after her. Maggie, now out of isolation, receives a text from Ingrid to keep Lloyd safe. Maggie has no choice but to go with Lloyd to Amsterdam where they believe Ingrid has gone with Rodrigo. Over the course of their marriage, Ingrid often kept from Lloyd things about her other life. Being a part of the CIA, Lloyd understood. But this time feels different. Is Ingrid working a case and placing herself in danger? Or, almost worse to contemplate, leaving him for Rodrigo?
Maggie has never lost the skills she had as an agent. But now in her sixties, she’s not as physically capable as she once was. Protecting Lloyd is tougher than she thought, not only because of her own limitations, but because he was never trained for field work and manages to place them in danger. She can’t help but wish she was back in Purity, in the arms of her now lover, Declan, enjoying one of Ben’s martinis. (Both men are also ex-CIA and part of the Martini Club.) When a white knight appears to save Maggie and Lloyd, she has to wonder what did Ingrid get them all into? Even after 40 years of friendship, does she really know Ingrid?
Gerritsen’s Martini Club series just keeps getting better and better. (Read reviews of the other two, The Spy Coast and The Summer Guests.) This time, Ingrid takes center stage and we learn more about her past, one she still can’t talk about with her husband, Lloyd. While he was able to excuse her silence about work, he now has to confront one of her lovers. Ingrid is energized being back in the field. Is that because of the work or Rodrigo?
Ex-CIA officers have many stories to tell, so Gerritsen has plenty of material for future Martini Club adventures. Who will take the lead in the next thriller? We can’t wait to find out.
The Shadow Friends
Tess Gerritsen
Top Bigstock photo by visual28
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