cover image Worse Than Death

Worse Than Death

Thomas Bunn. Henry Holt & Company, $17.45 (278pp) ISBN 978-0-8050-1072-5

Bunn's exciting follow-up to his impressive debut in Closet Bones features Jack Bodine, a private eye in Lansing, Mich. Bodine assures Nora Toland he will get back her infant, Mai, taken by Sam Agnew who had arranged the baby's adoption from a Vietnamese refugee. As the gouging owner of an illegal surrogate-parent operation, Agnew demands a huge ransom for Mai, more than Nora and her husband Dirk can afford. The assignment drags Bodine into crime-ridden places as he follows the trails of Mai's teenaged sitter, Xuan; the baby's biological father, Hung, and others, all with dangerous secrets to hide. When Mai's Vietnamese mother is murdered, Bodine lands in deeper trouble but persists in following the case to the literally bitter end. Readers caught up in the fast, terrifying action will welcome the relief of comic moments with Eddie, Bodine's small son, who inspires the love that makes a parent give up anything but his/her child. (Sept.)