She survived undercover in Moscow. Will her daughter’s kidnapping kill her?

CIA operative Nina Abrams is an invaluable asset to the Moscow office—an American who can think like a Russian. As the daughter of Stalin’s favorite portraitist, she never underestimates the Kremlin’s lethal games. But when her four-year-old daughter, Katie, disappears in a bloody kidnapping, grief paralyzes Nina, and the Agency sends her home.

Seven tough years later, her heavily medicated father’s shocking last words link Katie’s disappearance to missing nuclear warheads powerful enough to start World War III. Nina’s doubtful—until vandals ransack her father’s studio and leave a grisly reminder of that horrific night in Moscow. So Nina embarks on one harrowing final mission: Find the bombs that might provide closure about Katie—and maybe save the world.

But Nina’s not the only one after the loose nukes—and her competition is deadly.

NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR

After I purchased my first Orthodox icon from a now-defunct shop called Iconastas in Piccadilly Arcade in London, my precious parents died within four months of each other. During this tumultuous period of change, I wrote Loose Arrows, which is a deep dive into family, grief, and secrets, but also a literary journey that ends with great joy. What I like most about this book is the relationships: between three generations of strong women who aren’t what they appear to be; between a protagonist who adapts to grief and engages with the world (and a certain deputy sheriff) again; and between a dying parent and an adult child whose pasts could damage the love they feel for each other—and their legacies.

Releasing summer of ’27

Grace Masterson, “an archaeologist of mature vintage,” is rebuilding her stellar reputation after a shattering professional disaster, and her life after a humiliating divorce. When blackmailers interrupt these Herculean tasks by threatening her adult children, Grace—armed with decades of experience and contacts in the Middle East, a sharp mind, courage and determination, and a preternatural sense of smell—embarks on an impossible journey to save her kids by meeting the blackmailer’s demand that she find museum antiquities hidden during the Syrian Civil War.

But will pride and loyalty blind her to the evil right beneath her hound-dog nose?

NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR
I wrote Thirsty Bones after a harrowing experience on an archaeological dig on the Galilean Peninsula, my (then) teenage children by my side. Machine gun fire rattled in Lebanon, heavy artillery fire rumbled from Syria, and an Israel Defense Forces camo-painted bomber slipped through the clouds to circle above us. Every maternal instinct I had—and a few I didn’t KNOW I had—kicked into high gear, and Grace Masterson was born that day. I admire how Grace comes to grips with her failures while loving fiercely and unconditionally, and how her powerful character develops as she adapts to the changes, both personal and professional, that many of us face as we age.