Kill and Be Killed

February 1, 2016
Begley’s intriguing follow-up to 2015’s Killer, Come Hither pits Jack Dana, a former Marine, against Texas billionaire Abner Brown, the villain who murdered Dana’s beloved uncle in the previous book. Now a successful novelist, Dana is living in Venice after a breakup with his lover, Kerry Black, but an attack on Dana and news of Kerry’s death send him back to New York City, where he receives further threats. From Kerry’s closest friend, lawyer Heidi Krohn, Dana learns that Kerry had damning evidence against Brown, and with Kerry dead, Brown thinks Dana may have the evidence. A deadly game of cat and mouse ensues with Brown sending his people after Dana and those dear to him. Fortunately, Dana can turn to friends such as Scott Prentice of the CIA and former FBI agent Martin Sweeney in the fight against the seemingly invulnerable Brown. Fans of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher should enjoy Jack Dana’s adventures. Agent: Georges Borchardt, George Borchardt Inc.

February 1, 2016
The second in a series of suspense novels featuring a war hero-turned-bestselling novelist who prefers to exact justice through lethal rather than legal means. Begley, who's best known for his "Schmidt" novels (About Schmidt, 1996, was made into a film starring Jack Nicholson), returns with a follow-up to his recent Killer, Come Hither (2015). The result is less a sequel than a continuation, one that provides plenty of plot summary from the earlier book and finds protagonist Jack Dana proclaiming, in his typically stilted fashion, "I guess we've run out of the killers who actually do Abner's dirty work. That leaves us with the master puppeteer himself, Mr. Abner Brown." A Texas tycoon who could have been created by Ayn Rand, Brown is involved in all sorts of drug laundering and terrorist activity, a dirty underworld beneath his legitimate empire. "I'm richer than Buffett, smart guy, by the way, and that clown Bill Gates. Steve Jobs? An appliance salesman," he says. His credo: "I kill because I can." In this novel, like the last one, someone Jack loves has apparently committed suicide, though Jack suspects differently, and he knows who is ultimately responsible. Meanwhile, he must dispatch another batch of intermediaries to get to the source. He partners with a glamorous lesbian lawyer who was best friends with his former girlfriend, and a subplot involves whether the two will ever spark a romance. Jack could, in the words of one of his friends, "maybe straighten her out. I know you're a monster and all that, but you're an attractive and rich monster. A lot of women would be happy to overlook your faults." Alas, the book offers few plot twists to untwist, and its inevitable climax feels anticlimactic. And the protagonist has to be the only early-30s Manhattanite who would say, "I, blasphemous Jack Dana, proclaim to the four winds that vengeance is mine, and not the Lord's, and it is I, Jack Dana, who will repay." Begley has written plenty of better novels than this, and there are plenty of authors who write novels like this better.

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March 1, 2016
After killing the man who murdered his beloved uncle in Killer, Come Hither (2015), Jack Dana returns to the literary stage in Venice, recovering from the emotional traumas of his previous adventure in perfect Dana style by writing, training, and drinking. His respite is short-lived, however. Soon after learning that Kerry, the love of his life, has died tragically of a drug overdose, he finds himself fighting off an assassin hot on his own trail. Certain that Kerry's death was anything but an accident, Jack returns to the States to tie these recent events to Abner Brown, the millionaire behind his uncle's murder. With the help of some returning allies and the new addition of Kerry's alluring friend Heidi Krohn, Jack sets out to take Abner down once and for all, by any means necessary. The clipped dialogue, one-note characters, and unrealistic circumstances are off-putting in this rather predictable thriller. With lots of recap, the second book in the Jack Dana saga works fine as a stand-alone but might also appeal to repeat readers.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)