Spyin'

David Ricciardi's Black Flag begins with an interesting idea and benefits from his less ponderous prose style compared to some other genre writers working today. But it eventually wastes these strengths on a paint-by-numbers story with very few twists that actually surprise and a narrative path that breaks almost no new ground.

Somali piracy, thought to have been contained by naval patrols and better-defended target ships, has returned. But this time the pirates seem to be top-level operatives, equipped with advanced combat weaponry and using precision military tactics. There are no crew ransoms and no negotiations for returned cargos -- just ships and people disappeared without a trace. Jake Keller's boss at the CIA, Ted Graves, wants him to find out who's running the pirate operation and put him to work against targets that will help accomplish U.S. foreign policy goals. Two Somali warlords -- Badeed and Yaxaas -- are the prime suspects, and Jake works with in-country asset John Pickens to navigate the deadly maze of Mogadishu's twisted power structure and uncover the pirate network as well as its spies in commercial shipping. His encounter with Athena Romanos, one of the owners of the targeted tankers, will leave him questioning what Graves wants to accomplish and how far he wants to trust both his own superiors and the pirate network they want to use.

Ricciardi obviously researched both Somalia's recent history and the seemingly insoluble problems the country faces. He takes some extra time to sketch backstory for the two main villains and sets them against each other in an arrangement that hints at quite the game of chess we can expect to be played between them. But having done so he pivots to an extremely predictable set of outcomes for almost all of the lead characters, written almost as if he had allotted Black Flag only a set amount of creativity and he used it up in the first half. Careless writing -- like an enemy gunman shouting at his men to keep firing a page after said gunman took a round to the temple and "crumpled to the ground instantly, as if his entire skeleton had been removed" -- doesn't help matters much either.

As a character, Keller carries some interesting backstory of his own and that allows for interesting possibilities for his missions and adventures. But Black Flag, despite its well-researched scenario and promising beginning, won't be one of them.

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Brett Battles takes another step in his Quinn universe franchise, continuing to write about Quinn's partner, Nate, and his "hobby" of bringing justice in cases that regular law enforcement has been unable or perhaps even unwilling to solve.

In Insidious, Nate makes the tragic discovery of a woman's body while hiking one morning. Although he usually avoids the police he risks exposure by using one of his false identities to report the death. He thinks that may be the end of it, although the voice in his head that he identifies with Liz, his late girlfriend, is a lot less settled about that idea than he is, and as it turns out there is more to the death and to the deceased herself than it first seemed. Nate's friend Jar, a Thai computer hacker, is also disturbed by the case because of its resonance with her own past and insists that they do their own investigation. The announcement by police that their primary suspect was found dead makes Nate wonder if he's overlooked something.

Insidious is the second of Battles' "Night Man" series focusing on Nate. These stories are told from Nate's point of view and in first person, which often adds a smart-aleck sense of humor less apparent in the main sequence novels about Quinn and his team. Nick is wry and quick-witted, which makes for an engaging narrator and an easy read. Battles also does well at exploring the way Nate and Jar's friendship is developing -- hinting at the possibility of a romantic dimension down the road. But as he demonstrates, both characters have enough damage to them that any journey along those lines needs to be a slow and very careful one. His work in this book with Nate and Jar is probably some of the best character development Battles has done as an author.

But Insidious earns a down check because of the Lifetime-movie qualities of its narrative engine. In its early stages, when Nate and Jar work to uncover clues and solve a mystery, the open questions engage readers and keep their interest. But the resolution of that plot and the mystery the pair uncover is melodramatic at best and maybe better described as just silly. Insidious could also use some tighter editing; there are at least a couple of occasions when characters who are supposed to be wearing full face coverings mouth words to each other to coordinate their actions.

There's not much deep or lasting about the Night Man series, but it'd be easy to find suspense reads much less well done and without the solid handling of character development Insidious provides. It's a read that passes the time without deadening the brain.