2000

Crais is best known for his series of novels featuring Elvis Cole but I haven't read any of those. This is the second novel I've read by him, the first was Hostage and that was a great page turner, just an excellent story. This one's a page turner as well. Detective Carol Starkey, still recovering from a bomb blast that killed her (for a couple minutes until she was revived), is investigating another bombing. Someone is targeting bomb technicians. About halfway in comes the first big plot twist and from there it rockets along with several new twists thrown in. Naturally things end with a bang. Fun story. This was an excellent crime novel diversion. ( )

I found some of the characters almost contradictory in their personalities and motives from one part of the book to another. Given that, it is still an entertaining and gripping read. ( )

That is not entirely accurate. Carol doesn’t know she’s the next target until almost the end of the book. The ATF guy Pell knows but he’s not telling anyone. I figured out almost at the beginning that Pell wasn’t quite on the level. He was acting weird and it turns out he’s not in the ATF anymore because he’s going blind. He was in a warehouse when Mr. Red blew it up. His retinas became injured and are pulling away from the optic nerve. He has weird episodes of semi-blindness and is bent on revenge.

Carol was a piece of work. Normally the kind of behavior she was exhibiting was reserved for fictional male cops. Too much drinking, smoking and late nights. Too little food and normal social behavior. The only thing missing was the strip clubs. Anyway…she’s got a female partner and they don’t get along very well. Beth ratted out Carol for her illicit drinking and that made things go from bad to worse.

Carol figures out by the way the plumber’s tape was wound around the ends of the pipes, that the bombs were made by someone other than Mr. Red. She has a hard time convincing anyone else. Especially Pell who is completely fixated and obsessed on Mr. Red.

He hasn’t even been identified yet which is keeping him off the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List, much to his annoyance. When he finds out through a creepy bb service for pyros and mad bombers that someone is blowing things up with his MO, he freaks out and heads for L.A. to see how he can stop it.

The upshot is that Carol finds out that the husband of a woman he was having an affair with murdered the bomb tech. At first Carol thinks it’s a section chief but it’s not. It’s the head of the bomb squad. He didn’t know about the tape winding and now he knows that she knows. Just when he’s constructing a bomb just for her, Mr. Red finds him and kills him with his own bomb. Then he goes after Carol.

During this investigation, she gets a lead on Mr. Red’s strange explosive via a prisoner who used the same exotic substance. Mr. Red also learns of this prisoner and goes to deal with him to get some of his left over stash. The copycat bomber/cop has it. That’s how Mr. Red knew he was the copy-cat. But he’s not as smart as he thinks. When he was with the prisoner, the guy asked Mr. Red to look at his scrapbook of bomb related stuff. He accosted Carol with it because she was in it. She had to sign it. She knows that Mr. Red killed him because he would tell that Mr. Red came to see him. And she knows that he had to have handled the stupid book. She gets it printed and lo and behold, they get a name.
Now he’s on the 10 Most Wanted.

Meanwhile, she’s been having a couple of breakthroughs in her screwed-up mental state. She sees a tape of herself and her lover/partner being blown up and puts it to rest. The nightmares stop. Then she admits to Pell that she likes him. He freaks. She gets pissed. Then she finds out he’s not really with the ATF. She doesn’t turn him in. Her superiors find out. She’s suspended pending criminal charges.

But she can still get Mr. Red through the creepy bb and she convinces the superiors to let her try. Her trap fails, as we knew it was destined to. Mr. Red is at her house. He handcuffs her to an iron fireplace grate and leaves a bomb. Of course Pell decides to go back and try to make peace with her. Of course he gets there when Mr. Red is still there. They fight and Pell shoots him. But the fight has caused Pell’s retinas to completely detach. I could see this coming – Carol has to be his eyes and he disarms the bomb with Mr. Red still alive in the house. There is a tense moment when the wires are cut and there still might be a second trigger method. But that’s not what they have to worry about. Mr. Red is getting to his feet and strapped to him is another bomb. Pell uses the key hidden in the first bomb to unlock Carol and they bolt and make it, just barely, out of the house.

They end up together in the end. Him blind and her sober.

One thing that was very effective was Mr. Red’s use of Carol’s full name each and every time he addressed her. Carol Starkey. Carol Starkey. Carol Starkey. Over and over again until something that should make you proud and empowered seemed much more like a snide insult. It made Mr. Red seem more psychologically twisted and menacing.

WOW, this was a grab you and not let go book. INTENSE would not do this justice. A MUST READ for any serious fiction reader. ( )