The Killing Ground

Sean Dillon's fourteenth outing sends him after a clan leader who has kidnapped his own thirteen-year-old granddaughter to force her into marriage with a terrorist known as the Hammer of God. Higgins doesn't linger on the horror of that premise the way a literary novelist would — this is a plot-engine thriller — but the premise is disturbing in any telling, and Kirkus was not wrong to note the corpse-per-page count is characteristically high. The action moves, Dillon remains an engaging operator, and the Middle East setting feels contemporary. But fourteen books in, the formula is showing wear: globe-trotting plot, reliable body count, thin supporting characters. For longtime Dillon fans, it's a serviceable installment. For anyone else, the kidnapping-of-a-minor-for-forced-marriage plot is a significant content flag before you begin.