The Boy from Reactor 4

Stelmach’s subpar first novel relies on the old chestnut of a dying man’s last words conveniently providing some, but not too much, guidance to the book’s lead. In Manhattan’s East Village, forensic security analyst Nadia Tesla meets a mysterious man who phoned earlier with “the answers she needed.” When the man is shot on the sidewalk from a passing car, he manages to tell her, “Find Damian... Find Andrew Steen... They all... Millions of dollars... Fate of the free world.” The gunman almost gets Nadia as well before a doctor comes to her rescue. She soon suspects that the doctor’s fortuitous appearance was part of the bad guys’ plan. How does all this tie in with the prologue, set eight months later, in which a 16-year-old orphan from Alaska, Aagayuk “Bobby” Kungenook, suddenly becomes the fastest hockey player in the world? Many readers may not stick around to find out, put off by the limp prose and weak characterizations. (Mar.)