Cutting Edge

Larsen opens this high-energy thriller with the tantalizing line: “The second time he died was more difficult than the first.” Petty officer Trey DeBolt, an Alaska-based Coast Guard rescue swimmer, regains consciousness in a remote seaside cottage in Maine after a horrific accident that has left him with a scar on the back of his head and no memory of how he got there. His nurse, Joan Chandler, tells him: “The surgery you had, Trey... it wasn’t only to make you well. It was to make you different.” Shortly afterward, DeBolt witnesses Chandler gunned down by a five-man team of trained assassins and realizes that he was the killers’ real target. Thus begins a game of wits with his hunters and his dawning realization of just how “different” he has become. The plot has some truly surprising twists and turns, yet, for all the book’s speed and excitement, the author also skillfully slips in some thought-provoking ideas on technology and greed. Readers will hope for a sequel. [em]Agent: Susan Gleason, Susan Gleason Literary. (Jan.) [/em]