Columbus

September 7, 2009
At the start of Haas's less than compelling second thriller to feature the world-weary assassin who calls himself Columbus (after Silver Bear
), William Ryan, who serves as Columbus's middleman, hires him to kill Jiri Dolezal, a Czech banker involved with prostitution and drug dealing. In the course of preparing to murder Dolezal, Columbus meets and falls in love with an attractive rare book dealer in Rome, Risina Lorenzana. Columbus considers renouncing violence, even as he keeps his true nature a secret from Risina. After a gunman takes out Ryan, Columbus realizes that it won't be so easy to retire, as he himself becomes a target. The amoral killer seeking a normal life is a familiar theme that often works, but Haas fails to imbue his hero with enough emotional depth to make readers care about the man. Even the one highly unusual aspect of Columbus's backstory—he killed his own father at his father's request—gets lost amid formulaic action scenes.