The Reckless: A Bruno Johnson Novel

Putnam’s sixth Bruno Johnson novel, the overstuffed sequel to 2018’s The Innocents, further explores Bruno’s years as a young L.A. County deputy sheriff. Johnson and his buddy, Ned Kiefer, are on loan from the violent crimes unit to the FBI, which tosses them several preliminary crimes that Bruno solves with preternatural aplomb and that reconnect him with an old love, FBI special agent Chelsea Miller, with whom he once worked on a case that went bad. Finally, the Feds reveal the special problem that Bruno and Ned have really been chosen to handle: finding a way to arrest and charge Amos Leroy Gadd, who is recruiting children to rob banks in an effort to isolate himself from the crimes. Bruno and Ned must stop the robberies, preferably without hurting the children, and tie them back to Gadd. As the pace picks up, the plot takes some startling twists. Putnam, a retired cop, uses his long experience in law enforcement to good effect, but some readers will feel he covers too much territory too fast. [em]Agents: Mike and Susan Farris, Farris Literary. (Feb.) [/em]