Lockestep: A John Locke Mystery

John Locke is a professional bodyguard in Toronto whose years serving in the British SAS force gave him a taste for adventure while disposing him against bullies and terrorists. In his follow-up appearance to the well-received Hammerlocke, he's hired by the RCMP to accompany a mob-connected drug dealer to Mexico and keep him alive so he can return and implicate, as he's promised, larger fish. Locke is a hero midway between Bond and Spenser: large-hearted and educated, sensitive and physically very fit. When his charge escapes off a beach in western Mexico, Locke commandeers the local parasailing concession and descends upon his targeta small sailing vesselwithout getting even his gun wet. After a few amorous adventures, a grueling hike into the Mexican hills, some fancy double-crossing and the rescue of a famous American model from a drug habit, Locke finally delivers his charge back to the cold Toronto winter. Locke leans toward the avuncular on occasion and his adventure is somewhat complex, but the Mexican background is pleasingly vivid and Barnao delivers a thriller. (February)