THE WIDOW KILLER
By Pavel Kohout
St. Martin’s Press, $24.95
This novel by Czech playwright Pavel Kohout opens with a jolt: The widow of a German general who turned against Adolf Hitler is found brutally murdered in German-occupied Prague during World War II. The coroner’s report indicates the woman never struggled with her slayer. Assigned to the case are a young Czech homicide detective, Jan Morava, and a Gestapo officer, Erwin Buback. While the Nazis pretend to be interested in solving the case, their real concerns are for their own survival: They are trying to collect information on the strength of the Czech police in case they must fight them when the city is liberated by approaching Allied troops. Not surprisingly, the relationship between the two officers is tense, and it becomes worse when Buback tries to seduce Morava’s young wife. Kohout cuts seamlessly between the murder investigation and the chaotic political environment in which the demoralized Nazis fear the wrath of the local populace. As Morava and Buback close in on the murderer, their efforts are thwarted when the Allies invade the city and violence breaks out on all sides.
What’s most impressive about Kohout’s story is how he is able to maintain the conventions of the suspense novel while offering readers a vivid historical portrait of a city crazed by war.
THE BIG LAW
By Chuck Logan
HarperCollins, $24
One of the best new thriller writers is back with a twisty offering involving bad cops, ex-wives, sleazy newspaper reporters and the witness-protection program.
Ex-cop Phil Broker, last seen in “The Price of Blood,” has left his undercover work behind in the Twin Cities area and is taking care of his young daughter while building a house in rural Minnesota. Out of the blue comes a call from his ex-wife, Caren, telling Broker that Keith, her second husband (as well as Broker’s former partner and boss), has gotten into deep trouble with the Mafia. And she has a videotape to prove it.
Before driving up to see Broker to get his advice on how to handle the information, Caren hooks up with Tom James, a local reporter who senses a big story and goes along for the ride. But things go badly at Broker’s little house in the middle of nowhere. Caren ends up dead; Keith, who followed her to Broker’s house, is accused of murdering his wife; and the reporter who saw it all go down has vanished into the witness-protection program. But Broker believes Keith is innocent, and with a little help from some old friends in law enforcement he begins to track down James, whom he suspects of killing Caren.
Chuck Logan not only comes up with good plots, but he has an ability to set up confronta-
tions that leave readers on the edge of their seats. If he were a boxer, he’d be a heavyweight, and definitely a contender.
SEIZE THE NIGHT
By Dean Koontz
Bantam, $26.95
Following up his wildly successful “Fear Nothing,” Dean Koontz brings back that book’s protagonist, Christopher Snow, in a desperate search to find some missing children. The small town where Snow lives, Moonlight Bay, is an exceedingly odd place. Wandering the area–which was once home to a secret government clinic that performed genetic experiments–are wild bands of genetically altered animals, such as monkeys, coyotes and snakes. Worse yet, there are a few genetically altered humans roaming the fields who occasionally fly into animal rages.
Not content with one plot–children begin to vanish strangely–Koontz soon adds several more, involving serial murderers, a vast police conspiracy and alien worms. Fortunately, Snow is the perfect hero for these circumstances. Possessed of a rare genetic disorder that leaves him vulnerable to light, he knows how to live in the shadows of his world and watch what takes place without being noticed. And you know, that’s a good advantage to have when a gang of enhanced rhesus monkeys breaks into your house looking for you. “Seize the Night” is a book of bad dreams, and the author’s fans are going to love it.
DEADLY EXPOSURE
By Leonard Goldberg
Dutton, $23.95
The good thing about killer microbes is that they are instantly scary, threatening and easy to root against. The bad thing about killer microbes, at least as they turn up in most thrillers, is that they all begin to look the same after a while.
A handy example of this conundrum is Leonard Golderg’s latest, which finds forensic pathologist Joanna Blalock dropped onto a floating disease laboratory off the coast of Alaska. On it a team of crack scientists has gathered to develop an antidote for a highly infectious toxin that killed a husband and wife but left their young daughter untouched. Animosity runs high among the scientists, all of whom seem to be more interested in their personal agendas than in halting the spread of the germs. (One of the researchers is trying to isolate the culture and sell it to a foreign power.) Pretty soon, members of the team start dying, and it’s hard to tell whether it’s the toxin or just a nutty scientist on board killing off his colleagues.
As if all that wasn’t bad enough, Blalock has to deal with the possibility that her former love interest, who is also among the crew, may be up to no good. Combine all this with a tsunami that threatens to throw the ship to kingdom come, and “Deadly Exposure” goes over the top. While it’s never particularly believable, it rushes along at a brisk clip, and there is something rather heartening in knowing that even while racing to find an antidote to a killer toxin, the country’s top scientists can find plenty of time to engage in cheap sex.
THE SKINS OF DEAD MEN
By Dean Ing
Forge, $24.95
Teresa “T.C.” Contreras is the kind of protagonist you have to like. When she sees a couple of thugs roughing up a woman and her small boy, she knocks out one of the bad guys and scares away the other. Unfortunately, the kid’s mother dies in the fracas, and that leaves T.C. spending the rest of her Mexican vacation protecting little Al Henderson.
But Al is no ordinary little kid; he’s the heir to the throne of a Middle Eastern country, and his father will kill anybody to get him back. After a harrowing escape from Mexico, T.C. and Al head to New Mexico to seek help from the only person she can trust, Ross Downing. Her connection with Downing is a harsh one: The former government agent pulled T.C.’s own dying son out of a burning car during the course of chasing a bad guy. The deed resulted in burns all over Downing’s body, and he lives on an isolated ranch in the desert. Plenty of gunplay and fighting results when the villains eventually track down this odd threesome.
Dean Ing likes to use high-tech solutions in his thrillers, but it’s the personal relationships he describes that make this thriller work.
