cover image Mr. X

Mr. X

Nick Gaitano. Simon & Schuster, $20.5 (272pp) ISBN 978-0-671-50010-8

In his first cop thriller, Special Victims, Gaitano killed off his hero, making a sequel unlikely. But here rookie Jake Phillips, an important player in that book, returns to lead another look at Chicago's seamier side. Jake's partner, top homicide cop Alex Mondello (Mondo), becomes the major suspect in the murder of a much-hated fellow cop who was shot to death while acting as bodyguard for a small-time lawyer, also murdered, who ran a telephone sex business. Readers meet Mr. X, a sadist whose vicious conversation can drive even hardened sex-line ladies into whimpering despair, and who had it out for the lawyer. A connection between Mr. X and Mondo is established as Gaitano spins out a series of odd but believable coincidences that draw much of the cast into the same web. Gaitano continues to deliver the unexpected so that readers can't be sure that any characters, even the principals, will survive; he limns particularly well the fragile relationship between Jake and his debutante wife. The violent conclusion leaves the door open for a return visit by some members of this cast in Gaitano's promised third novel. (Mar.)