The record keeper

The adrenaline-pumping third entry in Martin's Murphy Shepherd series (after The Letter Keeper) explores human depravity and the healing power of love. Shepherd, a secret operative who moonlights as a popular novelist (under a pseudonym, of course), has worked for years with his mentor Bones to take down pedophiles and free victims of sex-trafficking (as Bones phrases it: "It's why God put us on planet earth"). They have made an unstoppable team, but Bones has kept something from his mentee: Bones's evil twin brother, Frank. Bones and Frank spent much of their youth in an orphanage run by sexually abusive priests, and decades later, Bones and Shepherd must deal with the disastrous consequences that trauma wrought on Frank. When Frank kidnaps Bones, Shepherd enlists a team of hackers to stop Frank before he destroys everything for which they've worked. Though the prose is plain, there's potent commentary on the prevalence of sexual abuse in the church and its devastating effects on the victims. Series fans will snap this up. (July)