Alex Kava

In Alex Kava‘s new thriller Exposed, profiler Maggie O’Dell must track down a deadly threat that comes from halfway around the world. The first victim is Waheem, an animal wrangler in Africa who catches monkeys to send to labs in the U.S. and Britain. On his way to deliver a cage of animals to a shadowy American who has purposefully asked for sick monkeys, Waheem gets a nosebleed that won’t stop. In a few hours, he is dead.

Two months later, O’Dell and her boss are in their office at Quantico when they discover a note at the bottom of a box of doughnuts. “CALL ME GOD,” the note says. “THERE WILL BE A CRASH TODAY…YOUR CHILDREN ARE NOT SAFE ANYWHERE AT ANY TIME.” And the race begins. Is it poison? Anthrax? Something new? Whatever it is, O’Dell and her colleagues have already been exposed and they might not live long enough to catch their killer.

Alex Kava appears at the Houston Public Library’s Mystery Book Club today at noon, and then reads and signs her book Exposed at the HPL’s Spend the Evening with the Author event at 6:30 p.m. 500 Mc-Kinney. For information, call 832-393-1313 or visit www.houstonlibrary.org. Free.

Tue., Oct. 21, 6:30 p.m., 2008