Inside Man by Jeff Abbott

Published by Grand Central Publishing on July 1, 2014

A woman walks into a bar. That could be the opening line of a joke, but it's also a logical opening of a Sam Capra novel, given the number of bars that Sam owns. This one is a dive near Miami. Sam's friend, who used to work security, is meeting the woman because he's doing an unspecified job for her. When the friend gets shot, the woman's problem becomes Sam's. The woman vanishes but Sam isn't someone who lets go of a mystery, particularly one that involves a friend.

The mystery takes Sam to Puerto Rico where he reengages with the woman and becomes involved with her family. There is a dirty side to the family business and enough family drama to power a television miniseries. Whether someone in the family killed Sam's friend is the central mystery, but as Sam gets drawn more deeply into the power struggle that preoccupies the family members, he has additional mysteries to solve. Before he learns the answers, he finds himself in a predicament that echoes the classic television series The Prisoner.

The story is full of action but none of it is mindless. The mysterious Round Table and the mysterious Mila, his Round Table contact, work their way into the story, causing Sam (and the reader) to wonder again about the Round Table's true agenda. That theme fades into the background after providing some tantalizing clues about the Round Table's true nature. A neat surprise at the end also sets up a plotline that will probably be advanced in the next installment.

I wasn't a fan of Adrenaline, the first Sam Capra novel, but the novels have steadily improved since then. Inside Man is the best of them. While it doesn't add much to existing characters, it delivers the strongest story in the series.

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