The Driver

May 29, 2017
Los Angeles limousine driver Michael Skellig, the hero of Hanson’s nimbly plotted first novel, has spent the past 28 hours ferrying around Bismarck Avila, a celebrity skateboard mogul. A former Special Forces sergeant, Michael is waiting outside a Santa Monica hotel for his client when he believes he hears the voice of the Chechen torturer he killed a decade before in Yemen warning him of danger. He runs inside the hotel just in time to save Avila—but not one of his bodyguards—from two gunmen. Michael wakes up hours later in the hospital only to discover that the police suspect him of the murder. Avila will vouch for Michael with the LAPD—if Michael agrees to become his full-time personal chauffeur. But the job is more than just driving Avila: Michael needs to find—and stop—the person who’s targeting the skateboarder. Hanson, creator of the TV series Bones, melds well-placed bits of humor with a serious look at the emotional trials of returning veterans. The energetic plot demands a sequel. Agents: Eve Attermann and Claudia Ballard, William Morris Endeavor.

June 1, 2017
Hired as a bodyguard for African-American reality TV star Bismarck Avila, a rapper and skateboard mogul, "astoundingly vanilla" LA limo driver Michael Skellig draws on his background as an Army Special Forces officer in Afghanistan to save his client from killers.Skellig graduates from being Avila's driver to being his bodyguard after he saves the young celebrity--but not one of his 300-pound protectors--from gunmen at a nightclub. Hard-edged LAPD detective Delilah Groopman, with whom Skellig has had a serious flirtation, wrongly suspects he killed the muscleman himself, so he must outrun not only the bad guys who are out to do in Avila, but also the sexy police officer. That becomes exceptionally complicated after Skellig kills a dirty LA cop who is torturing members of his limo company's team of wounded veterans. Hanson, creator of the long-running TV series Bones, takes to crime fiction in high style. Like Carl Hiaasen, he shows great pleasure in combining nasty violence with an arch comic sensibility ("When one is obliged to dispose of a murdered body, one faces a Gordian knot wrapped around Pandora's box, which contains Occam's razor," says Skellig, a nonstop stream of pithy comments). Skellig's crew of Afghanistan veterans is an entertaining bunch. It includes Tinkertoy, a female mechanic with a quirky case of PTSD, and Ripple, a barely-19-year-old with issues of his own. The ghostly warnings Skellig hears, in the voice of a terrorist he shot in Yemen, add to the fun. Bones showrunner Hanson's fresh-voiced first novel is a lark, which is saying something considering the violence to which its characters are subjected.

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Starred review from May 1, 2017
Remember The Rockford Files? The A-Team? Hart Hanson, creator of the TV show Bones, delivers all the punch of a classic television 70s crime show in this remarkable debut. Michael Skellig, an exSpecial Forces sergeant, is the proprietor of Oasis Limo Services, and his team consists of two badly wounded veterans and his former Afghan interpreter. Skellig drives the mean streets of Los Angeles, a twenty-first-century Philip Marlowe. He can be as tough or as tender as he needs to be. He ruminates on everything from Hippocrates' humors to the possibility of a Cadillac being haunted. He is wounded in his own way and haunted by the voices of those he has killed. After he saves a celebrity skateboard mogul from two gunmen, he ends up working as the man's regular chauffeur while in competition with a rogue cop and some nasty dudes to find a bunch of barrels that are worth killing for. The dialogue is crisp and street-tough, and the action redefines relentless. The novel also serves as a moving tribute to the sacrifices of our veterans; their stories are so harrowing that they can be painful to read. This will appeal to fans of classic hard-boiled detective novels, but the superhip contemporary tone will also attract millennials. Expect lots of buzz for what is sure to be one of the season's hottest first novels.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

May 15, 2017

The show runner for the Fox TV series Bones delivers his first thriller about a former U.S. Army Special Forces sergeant who runs a limo company (think The Bodyguard meets The Transporter). Toss in skateboarding and an intriguing potential romance and you have the makings of another popular series.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from August 1, 2017

Michael Skellig, a former army special forces sergeant, owns a small limo service, run with the help of an undocumented immigrant and two army vets with issues. Together they form a loyal close-knit family. The saga starts with an offer from Bismarck Avila, a bad-boy rock star skateboarder, to buy Skellig's company after he intervenes in a shoot-out at a nightclub where Avila is the target. When Skellig declines the offer, Avila blackmails Skellig into being his exclusive driver. Enter a crooked cop and another threat on Avila's life, with Skellig as his best chance at survival. VERDICT Bones creator Hanson has written an outstanding debut thriller. Readers of Scott Turow and Harlan Coben will appreciate the intricate plot and rich character development. Although there is a fair amount of violence, loyalty and "doing the right thing" are the main themes of this novel.--Susan Carr, Edwardsville P.L., IL

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2017

If you like FOX TV's Bones, you'll likely love this debut thriller by its creator. Michael Skellig, an army special forces sergeant now working as a limo driver, is carting around skateboard mogul Bismark Avila when he gets an intuitive sense of danger--and saves Avila from two gunmen. Now he's a person of interest in the murder of one of Avila's bodyguards, which is where his enduring crush, LAPD detective Delilah Groopman, enters the picture. Great expectations.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2017

Michael Skellig, a former army special forces sergeant, owns a small limo service, run with the help of an undocumented immigrant and two army vets with issues. Together they form a loyal close-knit family. The saga starts with an offer from Bismarck Avila, a bad-boy rock star skateboarder, to buy Skellig's company after he intervenes in a shoot-out at a nightclub where Avila is the target. When Skellig declines the offer, Avila blackmails Skellig into being his exclusive driver. Enter a crooked cop and another threat on Avila's life, with Skellig as his best chance at survival. VERDICT Bones creator Hanson has written an outstanding debut thriller. Readers of Scott Turow and Harlan Coben will appreciate the intricate plot and rich character development. Although there is a fair amount of violence, loyalty and "doing the right thing" are the main themes of this novel.--Susan Carr, Edwardsville P.L., IL

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.