Men’s Summer Fiction, May 1, 2001
May 1, 2011Summer 2011’s action/adventure thrillers offer readers old friends, some new buddies, and a couple of wannabes who don’t quite measure up. Characters in these stories rely on their friends to help them win or die trying. So before you take on international skullduggery and domestic thuggery, first make sure your own buddies have your back—invite ’em to a barbecue at the pool. Then they’ll owe you when the bad guys come calling.
Atkins, Ace. The Ranger: A Quinn Colson Novel. Putnam. Jun. 2011. c.352p. ISBN 9780399157486. $25.95. F
Returning home to Mississippi to attend his beloved uncle’s funeral, army ranger Quinn Colson finds himself fighting a power broker and meth-cooking white supremacists. Friends, including a beautiful deputy sheriff, follow his lead in the escalating confrontations. Quinn does not hesitate to draw on his training and combat experience, which means violence is a big part of the story. An effective companion plot shows the man Quinn might have become if he hadn’t left town. Atkins, the author of true-crime-based novels (White Shadow; Wicked City) and the Nick Travers series, launches a new crime series set in the Deep South. Give this one to Stephen Hunter fans who like fast-moving plots and decisive good guys facing down evil. [See Prepub Alert, 11/29/10.]
Box, C.J. Back of Beyond. Minotaur: St. Martin’s. Aug. 2011. c.384p. ISBN 9780312365745. $25.99. F
A disgraced cop with a history of alcoholism, Cody Hoyt is also a bulldog investigator. When his AA sponsor turns up dead, Cody determines that the killer is one of 14 dudes on a weeklong expedition in Yellowstone National Park; Cody’s son is also on the trip. While struggling to figure out who and why, and where they are in the wilderness, Cody also searches for redemption on behalf of his friend. Following 2008’s Blue Heaven, this is the author’s second stand-alone thriller to take place in the wild. As Box has shown in his Joe Pickett series, he knows life and death in the backcountry like few other writers today. [125,000-copy first printing; ten-city tour; see Prepub Alert, 3/14/11.]
Braver, Gary. Tunnel Vision. Forge: Tor. Jun. 2011. c.384p. ISBN 9780765309761 $25.99. F
Braver (Flashback) returns to his tried-and-true formula—religious zealotry, exotic drugs, and medical experimentation on unwitting patients. Because he recovered from a coma, Zack Kashian is recruited for research on Near Death Experiences even as a hit man is killing off the research team. Braver is going through the motions here, picking up and dropping plots and asking readers to care about a bunch of flat characters. Only for die-hard fans.
Hurwitz, Gregg. You’re Next. St. Martin’s. Jul. 2011. c.416p. ISBN 9780312534912. $24.99. F
Someone recognizes Mike Wingate’s picture in the newspaper and begins to destroy Mike’s life. But why? Tagged a terrorist, Mike winds up on the run from the cops and a nasty crew. He and a friend from his foster home days follow a faint trail back to the surprising source of the plot. The bad guys are suitably evil and the mystery satisfying, but Hurwitz’s (They’re Watching) real success is depicting Mike’s hard-won life as a husband, father, and successful businessman. A first-rate thriller. [Library marketing; see Prepub Alert, 1/24/11.]
Lawson, Mike. House Divided: A Joe DeMarco Thriller. Atlantic Monthly. Jul. 2011. c.320p. ISBN 9780802119780. $23. F
When the National Security Agency intercepts radio traffic recording the assassination of two Americans, the stage is set for a showdown with the Department of Defense. However, one of the victims was the distant cousin of Joe DeMarco, a fixer for the Speaker of the House, and Joe learns that the man had a secret that may have led to his murder. This is a serviceable entry (after the excellent House Justice) in an overall superior series, but some of the edge and humor are missing this time around.
Lustbader, Eric Van. Blood Trust: A McClure-Carson Novel. Forge: Tor. May 2011. c.416p. ISBN 9780765329745. $25.99. F
National security adviser Jack McClure and Alli Carson, the psychologically damaged daughter of the recently deceased U.S. President, are reunited in their third adventure (after First Daughter and Last Snow) as they work to uncover a conspiracy involving international terrorism and sex slavery. Lustbader brings in characters from his other McClure/Carson books but has to go off on time-wasting tangents to explain their backstories. Buy a copy for the name recognition from the author’s work on Robert Ludlum’s Bourne series, but don’t expect rave responses from readers.
Parker, Robert B. Sixkill: A Spenser Novel. Putnam. May 2011. c.304p. ISBN 9780399157264. $26.95. F
Parker’s final Spenser book is a reminder of just how much we’ll miss the beloved crime writer, who died in January 2010. Zebulon Sixkill, a Cree Indian whose college football career was sidetracked by the love of a bad woman, is the bodyguard for Jumbo Nelson, a (physically) huge movie star working in Boston. Jumbo’s outsized appetites leave a young woman dead, and with Z the only potential witness, Jumbo’s guilt or innocence becomes an open question. When Jumbo fires Z, Spenser takes him in and refines Z from an intimidating presence to a genuinely dangerous man. When Spenser tells Susan Silverman, “I know what I like and what I don’t like, and what I’m willing to do and what I’m not, and I try to be guided by that,” readers couldn’t ask for a better epitaph for Spenser and Parker. [See Prepub Alert, 11/1/10.]
Rush, Jonathan. Due Diligence. Thomas Dunne: St. Martin’s. May 2011. c.352p. ISBN 9780312559779. $26.99. F
Louisiana Light CEO Mike Wilson wants a fast merger to hide his financial messes. Researching the target company, brand-new investment analyst Rob Holding concludes that the deal stinks and raises uncomfortable questions that endanger himself and his friends. As the moral center, Rob stands in stark contrast to characters who are too greedy, ambitious, or arrogant to voice their own objections. The quick deadline for the deal lets debut novelist Rush blast through the details of the merger, keeping the pace hot while providing essential details for financial neophytes. For financial thriller fans. [Library marketing.]
Spillane, Mickey & Max Allan Collins. Kiss Her Goodbye. Houghton Harcourt.May 2011. c.288p. ISBN 9780151014606. $25. F
After the shoot-out in Spillane (1918–2006) and Collins’s last collaboration, The Big Bang, Mike Hammer has been recuperating in Florida. He reluctantly returns to New York for the funeral of a cop friend but senses that something isn’t right about the death. Another murder pulls Hammer into the world of disco, drugs, and diamond smuggling, and his .45 gets plenty of action. Hammer still likes his dames big, beautiful, and bawdy, and there are plenty in this story. But New York in all her tawdry glory is the dame that will always break Hammer’s heart. Spillane may have dreamed up these books, but Collins does a bang-up job writing them.
Terry, Mark. The Valley of Shadows. Oceanview.Jun. 2011. c.304p. ISBN 9781933515946. $25.95. F
Terry’s latest thriller featuring Derek Stillwater (The Fallen; The Serpent’s Kiss) is a tepid, fractured affair. As Derek bounces from Pakistan to L.A. in pursuit of terrorists planning a series of attacks on Election Day, Terry loses a lot of momentum along the way. Derek, his nemesis/superior, and the obligatory sacrificial agent are all clumsily developed, and the only character Terry seems to have invested any emotion in is a fringe player in the real attack. Great concept, clunky execution.
Vincent, E. Duke. The Camelot Conspiracy: A Novel of the Kennedys, Castro & the CIA. Overlook, dist. by Penguin. May 2011. c.328p. ISBN 9781590206393. $24.95. F
When a 300-page novel about the Bay of Pigs disaster and JFK’s assassination starts with a three-page list of names, you know name-dropping is more important than character development. Dante Amato represents the Mob, his brother Aldo the CIA, and Dante’s love interest Marissa del Valle the exiled Cubans whose unholy friendship blasted America into the turbulent 1960s.This meticulous fictional history by TV producer (Beverly Hills, 90210) and author (The Strip) Vincent focuses on the details and misses the impact of Kennedy’s assassination. Recommend only to conspiracy buffs.—Andrew Smith, Williamsburg Regional Lib., VA
