Opening paragraphs.........................

     It was Toulouse that would prove to be Hannah Weinberg's undoing.  That night she telephoned Alain Lambert, a contact at the Interior Ministry, and told him that this time something would have to be done.  Alain promised a swift response.  It would be bold, he promised Hannah, boldness being the default response of a fonctionnaire when in reality he planned to do nothing at all.  The following morning the minister himself paid a visit to the site of the attack and issued a vague call for "dialogue and healing."  To the parents of the three victims he offered only regrets.  "We will do better," he said before returning hastily to Paris.  "We must."

-Daniel Silva,  The Black Widow

In my limited reading experience, rare is the author (the only exception that comes to mind being Patrick O'Brian) who can carry his hero through sixteen books and have the sixteenth be the best yet.  This is a really good very good stay up all night book.