"Inside Man" (Grand Central Publishing), by Jeff Abbott

"Inside Man," the fourth novel by Jeff Abbott to feature bar owner and ex-CIA agent Sam Capra, continues one of the best ongoing series in the thriller genre.

Readers will be hooked from the start when a friend of Sam's — who doesn't know about his spy past — asks for a favor. Steve occasionally takes security positions, and he hopes Sam will help him protect a young woman by becoming an inside man. Before Sam can learn more, Steve is shot and killed in front of the bar.

Sam learns the woman Steve was trying to protect is the daughter of a powerful tycoon with potentially shady dealings. She agrees to let him pretend to be her boyfriend, and soon he has access to her possibly criminal family of treacherous brothers and sisters, and a father who might be going senile, taking his empire down with him. Sam doesn't know whom he can trust, and with no access to his usual safety net, has to tread carefully.

"Inside Man" jumps into the action right away, and the last 100 pages are downright terrifying.

Abbott has a gift for creating great character-driven thrillers, and readers will clamor for more, especially given the cliffhanger ending.