Ben Koenig, the former U.S. marshal who cannot feel fear and who was first introduced in M.W. Craven's Fearless, returns in the rip-roaring Nobody's Hero. A woman whom Koenig helped to disappear a decade ago resurfaces to commit a shocking double murder and a kidnapping in broad daylight in London's Hyde Park. Extreme actions were taken to get her safely off the grid all those years ago, so why would she risk her life by reappearing now?
It turns out that the United States is endangered by a plot to destroy it from the inside, this mystery woman is the only one who understands its scope, and the clock is ticking because the murders of specific targets indicate the plan has been activated. Koenig and his old handler, Jen Draper, are sent to find the woman, but they may not be able to stop the nightmarish endgame or survive their attempt to do so.
Many thriller action heroes are said to be Jack Reacher-esque, but Koenig really earns this comparison. As a protagonist, he's formidable in brawn and brains, with a dry sense of humor. At one point, Craven even mentions Reacher, as if winking at readers to show that he's aware of what they're thinking. But Koenig is his own man. He's not tough because of an imposing physique--he's just a stubborn man with a condition called Urbach-Wiethe disease, which makes him unable to feel fear. To succeed on his missions, he uses methods that are wildly over-the-top, tackling the sort of scenarios that reasonable humans wouldn't even consider, but that's what makes Nobody's Hero an entertaining escapade. --Elyse Dinh-McCrillis, reviewer and freelance editor at The Edit Ninja