DESPERATE MEASURES

By Jo Bannister Minotaur, 320 pages, $29.99

This third book in the veteran English crime novelist’s engaging series featuring the government security analyst Gabriel Ashe and the rookie cop Hazel Best looks like it might bring a resolution to a major puzzle. Until now, Ashe has agonized over the fate of his wife and two young sons who were taken prisoner by Somali pirates. Desperate Measures, in an often confusing tangle of events, sets in motion a rescue strategy. Or does it? Who can tell? Bannister, graceful stylist that she is, loves to tease her readers.