Max Allan Collins no longer writes CSI tie-in novels. At least not officially. Because YOU CAN’T STOP ME, written with Matthew Clemens, feels a lot like one.
Instead of Gil Grissom (who, perhaps not-so-incidentally, gets name-dropped), the hero is J.C. Harrow, a Iowa small-town sheriff who hits the big time when he saves the President of the United States from a would-be assassin’s bullet at the state fair. His adrenaline rush is short-lived, however, when he arrives home and feels that something’s “not right.” Sure enough, he finds that his wife and son have been shot to death, and her not-that-valuable wedding ring missing from her finger.
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Mark Mills came to prominence with AMAGANSETT, a book that won the British Crime Writer Association’s Award for best novel by a debut author. He followed that up with the well-received THE SAVAGE GARDEN, and now, THE INFORMATION OFFICER. The work is primarily set on the island of Malta in World War II, and features the title character of Max Chadwick, whose role is to disseminate the right type of propaganda amongst the natives, to keep morale high.
High morale is at a shortage. Malta, a British Crown colony, is under constant attack from German and Italian forces, receiving twice-daily bombings for almost two years, suffering great casualties, and experiencing shortages of almost everything, including food. Chadwick and his friends make the best of it as well as they can, until a young street girl is found raped and murdered.
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Someday, Joe Hill will figure out how to craft a novel that equals the genius of his short stories. Until then, his full-length books will range between good and really good, perhaps one third act shy of being great. Invest in such hope, because his second novel, HORNS, is better than his first, HEART-SHAPED BOX.
It has a killer first chapter, which I’m now reprinting in full: “Ignatius William Perrish spent the night drunk and doing terrible things. He woke the next morning with a headache, put his hands to his temples, and felt something unfamiliar, a pair of knobby pointed protuberances. He was so ill — wet-eyed and weak — he didn’t think anything of it at first, was too hungover for thinking or worry. But when he was swaying above the toilet, he glanced at himself in the mirror over the sink and saw he had grown horns while he slept. He lurched in surprise, and for the second time in twelve hours he pissed on his feet.”
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The most impact Douglas Preston’s IMPACT may make is in confirming the author’s heir-apparent status as the king of the science-based thriller, now that Michael Crichton has left this earth. When Crichton died nearly two years ago, he left some pretty big shoes to fill — even literally; the guy stood 6 feet, 9 inches tall! Not only is Preston up to the challenge, but the quality of his novels arguably have surpassed Crichton’s final few.
IMPACT revives the heroics of ex-CIA agent/ex-monk-in-training Wyman Ford, introduced in TYRANNOSAUR CANYON and last seen in BLASPHEMY. Here, he’s called upon by the federal government to investigate the source of some strange, deep-orange gemstones that are hot on the black market … but also laced with radioactive material.
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Those who read the previous Jackson Steeg novel won’t be disappointed by SINNERS’ BALL. Ira Berkowitz’s story picks up a few months after the events of OLD FLAME. New readers, it’s best you read that book first, especially since it’s all about Steeg and the relationship with his brother, David, after having to pull his sibling’s ass out of a fire.
The fire in question was an abandoned warehouse which David owned and is seen as a serial killer’s burial ground and a target for arson. Steeg uncovers lot more than expected, with a high-class prostitution ring being a central problem. The bodies found in the warehouse are another; they were all men, except for one prostitute who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
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