cover image Broker

Broker

Chuck Logan. Conquill, $16 trade paper (364p) ISBN 978-0-9908461-6-1

In Logan’s solid seventh series novel (after 2005’s Homefront), a prequel, Phil Broker attempts to get his life together in Minnesota in 1979 despite a hidden military past that has made it difficult for him to get a decent job. When police officer Joe Desmond goes berserk on a cop shooting range and starts firing at fellow officers, Broker, who happens to be practicing at the range, shoots Desmond dead. After this unsettling incident, Harold Cantrell, a detective with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Investigation, persuades the vulnerable Broker to go deep undercover as a bodyguard for Russell “Soap” Turrie, an operator on the fringes of the underworld, in a scheme to recover a big drug shipment from a bunch of bad guys. As assistants, Broker recruits a team of amateurs, including an old war buddy and the psychologist who does a psych evaluation of him. Logan spins some nifty moves and countermoves as Broker and company try to stay alive in this suspenseful thriller. (Mar.)