In Plain Sight

July 12, 2010
Canadian author Knowles's unsparing, blood-soaked third crime thriller to feature mob-enforcer Wilson picks up where the previous entry, Grinder, left off. Wilson wakes up handcuffed to a Hamilton, Ont., hospital bed, where the cops want to know who he is and why he was found lying in the street next to a homicide scene. In addition, the Russian mob and the Italian Mafia want him dead, but they've all underestimated Wilson, who has a knack for remaining invisible in a crowded room and of evading detection while in plain sight. Soon, Wilson slips into the streets of Hamilton, where he deftly plays the dirty cops against the mobsters. Gunfights and well-choreographed scenes of carnage abound. Wilson, who makes no pretense of which side of the law he's on, remains unburdened by quaint notions of redemption. This is pure, visceral action, reading more like an episode of a serial than a self-contained novel.

September 15, 2010
Wilson, the Mob enforcer who appeared in Darwins Nightmare (2008) and Grinder (2009), is not a happy man. No surprise therehes always been a bit of a glass-half-empty kind of guybut this time he has got a good reason. Some crooked cops are using him as a lure to nab some very bad people, and Wilson can think of only one way out of the predicament: to pit the cops and their prey against each other, letting them take each other out. Sounds like a good plan, but can he pull it off and somehow manage to stay alive? Knowles novels echo writers who have come before himRichard Stark, for example, or Jim Thompsonbut theyre not imitations. Wilson isnt Starks Parker, and the authors bare-bones prose doesnt sound like Thompsons. And the setting certainly freshens up the proceedings, too: you dont see a lot of noirish crime dramas set in Hamilton, Ontario. For noir fans, a must-read.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)