This is the third installment in James Comey’s superb Nora Carleton series after “Central Park West” and “Westport.” Nora has ended her more lucrative private hedge fund career that was riddled with corrupt characters in Connecticut (at least retaining a northern love interest), and returned to the Southern District of New York/SDNY as a Deputy US Attorney/DUSA (Comey’s generous usage of government acronyms is back, too). This book can be read as a standalone and the recurring characters are re-introduced without nagging questions about their pasts.

This courtroom thriller begins with a bombing at the UN plaza that has injured Nora’s right hand man, Benny, but then immediately goes back a year in time to a trial indicting a radical internet personality for stochastic terrorism — inciting his rabid followers to go after people he’s doxxed. There are 6 victims, 3 murdered, 5 covered by the Hate Crimes Act (the white professor doesn’t “count” even though he’s as dead as the others). The perpetrators who were caught, all considered “White Identity Extremists,” were addicts of Sam Buchanan’s rantings and felt he was instructing them to rid the world of his perceived enemies. Nora and company want to stop Buchanan by charging him similarly as the Blind Sheikh case was handled.

Until we return to the fiery scene on FDR Drive at the UN, this is the kind of legal thriller that will be stuffy for some with all its proper processes and legalese, but it’s probably catnip for armchair lawyers and CourtTV/C-SPAN addicts. There’s a sketchy jailhouse informant to deal with; jurisdiction disputes are common. Comey shows immense respect for all sides in the courtroom — the defense counsel would love to retire with his reputation intact, but instead he is saddled with a co-counsel worthy of the rumors that surrounded less than stellar made-for-TV attorney Alina Habab. Nora and the judge are fair. Comey is very aware that everyone is walking a thin political line (including this novel), including differing views of J6 defendants (like dissensions whether police attackers deserve imprisonment and condemnation as if they were terrorists, but stupid crowd members/sheeplike wanderers into the Capitol don’t deserve the same judicial treatment).

I think Comey is living vicariously through DUSA Carleton - she’s very tall for a woman (“five-twelve”) and he’s known for his 6’7” stature. My biggest surprise while reading the first Nora Carleton thriller, “Central Park West,” was how well written the female characters all were — intelligent, balanced, clever, brilliant, complicated, not petty or overly emotional, and engaging. It’s a talent that James Comey has continued through his series.

Plus, we get treated to FBI trivia again: “special” (as in Special Agent) actually just means armed instead of a promotion from plain Agent; the site of the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force team in New York is in the former bakery building where the Oreo was born; Hogan’s Alley in the FBI training site in Quantico has an operating Subway sandwich shop; and the FBI shops for hams at Costco.

Comey is an author whose past life definitely helps him develop realistic plot lines with satisfying conclusions. The story is action-packed and the character team deserves another future thriller! 5 stars!

Literary Pet Peeve Checklist:
Green Eyes (only 2% of the real world, yet it seems like 90% of all fictional females): YES Sean has hooded green eyes.
Horticultural Faux Pas (plants out of season or growing zones, like daffodils in autumn or bougainvillea in Alaska): NO But how nice to have a wedding at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

Thank you to Mysterious Press/Penzler Publishers/Scarlet and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy!

Another topical and riveting suspense thriller filled with background
and Intel that only a former FBI director could authentically include.
And Coney does it so well.
Nora Carleton, a NYC based federal prosecutor, along with her investigator Benny, is attempting
to unravel and prevent a terrorist attack in NYC. Acting on drawn from a right wing conspiracy theory promoter national podcaster with millions of followers, she and Benny, along with FBI partners, are
on a race against the clock.
Only what clock and what target are the mystery. questions they are searching frantically to bundle the answers yo.
Great suspense and so full of in depth descriptions of both job and position info that it is easy to
place yourself right into the midst of the plot and story telling.
Coney may have left the FBI but it definitely has not left him.
Another great read.