The Anaïs Assignment (The Bowin Novels #3), by Lee Holz:

This third book in the Tom Bowin series of thrillers begins with a daylight kidnapping in Bethesda, Maryland. Teenager, Diego Mendoza, is snatched as he waits for his girlfriend, Anaïs Bowin, to join him outside their school. Anaïs witnesses the incident and barely manages to escape being kidnapped herself as the bullets fly in a taught first chapter. Like the first two Bowin thrillers, the plot weaves over different continents and locations (France, Morocco, Bahamas, Maine, Washington, Ireland) and holds the reader’s attention, as we learn about Anaïs’ shocking past, from her being rescued from imprisonment by a sexual predator, to being saved and adopted by Tom and Alice, coming to terms with the guilt of her past, and the discoveries she’s yet to make. With references to the first two books, there is careful attention to detail and character development, distinguishing this series from many of the run-of-the-mill intrigue stories, in particularly with its focus on human emotions and relationships. As hard-hitting as the scene in which one character in a boat cabin gets a bullet through the forehead, this is another well-written and entertaining story. I’m looking forward to what Tom Bowin’s fight with global terrorism will bring in the fourth book: The Hawala Assignment.