Grinder

Starred review from August 24, 2009
Razor-edged prose and a sympathetic antihero lift Knowles's no-holds-barred crime thriller, the sequel to Darwin's Nightmare
(2008), which introduced the mob enforcer known only as Wilson. Wilson has left behind the person he was in Hamilton, Ont., where he worked for mob boss Paolo Donati. He's found a new life on Prince Edward Island as a hired hand on a fishing boat. Unfortunately, after Wilson's attempt to aid a dying politician results in his photo being splashed across Canadian front pages, Donati sends a thug to find him. Though Wilson is easily able to dispatch his tracker, he realizes he can't further endanger the people he has come to care for in his new community. He returns to Hamilton to locate those responsible for the disappearance of Donati's nephews. While not for those uncomfortable with gore, readers who like their mean streets really mean will be thoroughly satisfied.

October 1, 2009
Trained hit man and problem solver Wilson ("Darwin's Nightmare") comes out of forced retirement to help his old crime boss find his missing nephews. Wilson meets the mean streets of Toronto and some of the ugliest bad guys in crime fiction. VERDICT Knowles combines nonstop action with gritty violence to hold the reader's attention. For fans of hard-boiled mysteries.

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