A Whisper of Black

It may not be the Christmas season Tyler Vance had in mind, but it's the one he gets in Harvey's sequel to his debut thriller, A Flash of Red. The story picks up six months after Vance broke up a multimillion-dollar gun deal and retired as a special operative to devote himself to parenting and outdoors writing. His new career has to wait, however, when, just before Christmas, he learns that the $2 million involved in the deal and belonging to a group of angry Bosnian Muslims is actually in Mexico, in the hands of Hector Diaz, who supposedly died when the deal went bust. The Bosnian Muslims want their money back. To get, it, Vance joins forces with the enemy, including convict Ralph Gonzales and the formidable assassin Harmony Cahill. In a neat and efficient double cross, Gonzales and Vance deceive Diaz into crossing the border for a bogus drug deal while Cahill, hired for a hit on the entire Vance family, deals with Vance for her share of the booty. Some exciting action sequences (including one in which Cahill storms Cullen Vance's elementary school) pump up the sketchy plot, which is bolstered by details of the single parent's life and some strong secondary characters. There's not too much originality on display here, and Vance's narration can be awkward (""my cranium was filled to overflowing with worry and concern""), but Harvey tells his tale swiftly and manages to resolve it in time for a warm and fuzzy Christmas Eve finale. (Apr.)