Bleeding Hearts

September 18, 2006
First published in the U.K. in 1994 under the pseudonym Jack Harvey, this routine thriller from Edgar-winner Rankin tells the story of Michael Weston, a fastidious British assassin whose life gets complicated when Hoffer, an American PI, starts to close in on him. The novel opens with Weston's carefully choreographed hit on London TV journalist Eleanor Ricks, but Hoffer is chasing Weston for another assassination, in which the antihero mistakenly shot a young girl. The plot takes a convoluted journey to the United States, to a weapons dealer in Texas and on to a quasireligious cult near Seattle. The nonstop action, copious violence and arcane details about weaponry and forensics will please thriller junkies, but fans of Rankin's masterful John Rebus series (Fleshmarket Alley
, etc.) may not find this pre-Rebus book to their taste.

September 1, 2006
Like " Witch Hunt" (2004) and " Blood Hunt" (2006), the latest Rankin is not an installment of his stellar Inspector Rebus series but a first U.S. edition of a stand-alone originally published in the U.K. under the name Jack Harvey (in this case, in 1994). The hero here is Michael Weston, a highly paid assassin whose specialty is the long-distance shot, always through the heart. He's dubbed the "Demolition Man" because he always sets off a diversionary explosion nearby. At the book's start, he makes a kill but barely escapes the police: he has been set up. But by whom? First he needs to find out who hired him. His journey takes him north to Yorkshire, then to the U.S. He's accompanied by love-interest Bel, daughter of his armorer, and dogged by Leo Hoffer, a publicity-hungry PI intent on bagging the "D-Man"--and there's a mysterious U.S. government agent, too. Though this is more standard thriller fare than the Rebus series, it's smart and inventive. Weston's a hemophiliac, for example, and he is no action hero--he is decidedly uncomfortable with death. And a nice twist at the end adds a surprising piece of political relevance. " Bleeding Hearts" loses a bit of its sparkle once the stalking is over and the fighting starts, but it's still plenty good. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)