The summer guests

Retired CIA agent Maggie Bird and her ex-spy friends attempt to track down a missing teenage girl in Gerritsen's lively sequel to The Spy Coast. After 15-year-old Zoe Conover vanishes during a family vacation in the small hamlet of Purity, Maine, Maggie and her martini-sipping cohorts jump on the case, earning the begrudging respect of local police chief Jo Thibodeau. The mystery deepens when authorities dredge up decades-old human remains from a pond next to the property where the Conovers were staying. Unwilling to write off the discovery as a coincidence, Maggie and her team launch a wide-ranging investigation that reveals dark secrets about a mass killing in 1972 and reignites rumors that Purity hosted government drug experiments throughout the '60s. Meanwhile, sparks start to fly between Maggie and her ruggedly handsome neighbor, Declan Rose. As in the first book, Gerritsen paints Maggie and her crew with a fine brush, and strikes a satisfying tone that's neither too dour nor too twee. These sexagenarian spies are hitting their stride. Agent: Meg Ruley, Jane Rotrosen Agency. (Mar.)