Fans of Preston and Child’s bestselling Aloysius Pendergast novels (Relic, etc.) may want to take a pass on the unremarkable second Gideon Crew thriller (after 2011’s Gideon’s Sword), whose lead could be cut-and-pasted into any number of books by less gifted genre writers. A rare medical disorder has left Crew, a private contractor for the shadowy Effective Engineering Solutions, with just 11 months to live, but he can’t resist an opportunity to defuse a hostage situation in Queens. The hostage-taker, Reed Chalker, had worked with Crew at Los Alamos, and the FBI hopes Crew can calm Chalker, who believes the government is beaming rays into his head. The resolution of the standoff leads to fears that Chalker provided a weapons-grade nuclear core to Islamic terrorists. The unexciting action sequences that follow, including a duel with chain saws, fall well short of the authors’ usual high standard. Agent: Eric Simonoff at William Morris Endeavor. (Jan.)