Dark Angel: A Jack Madson Novel

In Felber's overwrought third Jack Madson novel (after 2014's The Kafka Society), the San Francisco%E2%80%93based macho adventurer wangles a job from a friend that takes him to Princeton University to look into the death of student Mary Linda Schumann. Princeton, N.J., police detectives Tommy Gifford and Don Donnolly walk Madson through the case and convince him that the 19-year-old girl committed suicide, but Ty Rollins, a local newspaper reporter, says the cops screwed up what should be a murder investigation. Princeton geneticist-virologist Marjorie Kurtz informs Madson that there are people at the university engaged in secret research based on work done by infamous Auschwitz doctor Josef Mengele; their goal is to create "genetically engineered soldiers." Soon hard-drinking, pill-popping Madson finds his worst nightmares coming true. The thin, fantastic plot pits Madson, a virtual pawn, against an array of powerful enemies. Readers should be prepared for a series of confrontations that are almost cartoonish in their extreme violence. (May)