Terminal Life: A Suited Hero Novel

Nonfiction author Torregrossa (Cary Grant: A Celebration of Style) makes his suspense debut with this violent, action-filled series opener. Ex–Navy SEAL Luke Stark returns to New York City to track down the person responsible for his wife’s death. Was it mobbed-up Uncle Paulie or a high-level conspiracy? And will Luke, diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, live long enough to figure it out? Armed with the sharpened edge of a MetroCard and dressed in a flashy suit, Luke hits the streets. The meat-and-potatoes prose details fights (“[A bullet] hits Santiago in the eye, an instant kill”); car chases (“The Hummer bumps, grinds, flattens, rolls over, and bulldozes about a dozen cars in its path until it finds daylight”); and derring-do (“Parachuting into jungles wearing nothing more than a pair of shorts and gripping a knife between his teeth was his idea of recreation”). Fans of men-of-action straight-to-video movies will best appreciate this one. Agent: Christian Labay, Labay Literary Agency. (June)