From Publishers Weekly Lustbader fans will herald the coming of this latest adventure in the astonishingly turbulent life of half-Asian, half-Caucasian, all-hero fighting machine Nicholas Linnear. Newcomers to the author's idiosyncratic work, however, may have trouble getting with this sequel to The Kaisho , which not only features the usual heaping doses of violence, sex and Japanese mysticism but requires pages of difficult exposition to recap the story thus far, which hooks on high-tech shenanigans. The novel opens with a trademark example of Lustbader's eroticized violence, as a Vietnam vet in 1983 Burma struggles to maintain his foothold among the nation's drug lords and exacts a deliciously nasty vengeance against a bitter enemy. Leap to the present and Linnear, soon trapped in Saigon's famed underground tunnels with only his " tanjian eye "--some sort of sensory enhancement that is mentioned all too often--to guide and protect him. Meanwhile, back in the U.S., Linnear's old friend, ex-NYPD detective Lew Croaker, is also on the case, unleashing his prosthetic hand, complete with retractable claws and powered by lithium batteries, whenever the occasion arises. And so the wildly improbable but amazingly energetic action goes, from Washington to Tokyo and back to Vietnam, with periodic flashbacks thrown in, as well as a mobster nicknamed "Bad Clams" and a drug-lord named "Rock," until it reaches not a conclusion but a setup for the next Linnear thriller (" So it's not over , Vesper thought. It's just beginning "). This is the kind of novel that fans of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles read when they grow up--and no one does it with more punch than Lustbader.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal Nicholas Linnear is back on a manhunt for the killer of Vincent Tinh, a director in his company, Sate International. At the same time, he is looking for his friend Okami, head of a Japanese underworld clan, who has asked for Linnear's help. Assisted by pal Lew Croaker, Linnear probes the underbelly of Southeast Asia, focusing on the Floating City, a secret empire where Tinh's murderer is hiding and where the key to Okami's trouble lies. In an action-packed finale, Linnear avenges Tinh's death and narrowly escapes a nuclear blast. Full of passages describing Japanese culture and history, this work continues the saga of Linnear, a man as comfortable in the East as he is in the West. The numerous Japanese terms will confound neophyte Lustbader readers, but veteran fans will appreciate this richly detailed, if slow-moving, novel. Public libraries of all sizes will want this best-selling author's latest offering.
-- Grant A. Fredericksen, Illinois Prairie Dist. P.L., Metamora
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. ( )

NICHOLAS LINNEAR