Dick Wolf delivers in 'The Execution'

Dick Wolf, creator of television's “Law & Order,” follows his thriller “The Intercept” with “The Execution,” a page-turning novel that reads like a compelling episode of the best television has to offer. And like his stories from “Law & Order,” the novel feels like it could be ripped from the headlines.

Commandante Cecilia Garza of the Mexican intelligence agency has been hunting an elusive assassin known as The Hummingbird (Chuparosa). Twenty-three bodies are found near the U.S. border, and she knows this killer is responsible. A tip leads her to another massacre, but her adversary is nowhere to be found. Then she learns he's headed to Manhattan for United Nations week, a time when the world's most powerful leaders are in the city.

NYPD Detective Jeremy Fisk, hero of “The Intercept,” is still reeling from events that almost killed him, but even a devastating loss cannot keep him from his duties, and Fisk and his Joint Terrorism Task Force team are on high alert for the week.

Garza immediately rubs Fisk the wrong way. But they are going to have to put aside their differences to stop a plot that could destroy the city and eliminate leaders from several foreign countries.

Wolf takes the time to explore what makes people in law enforcement strive to be the best they can be while keeping the pace of the story frenetic.