cover image Last Shot

Last Shot

Gregg Andrew Hurwitz, . . Morrow, $24.95 (419pp) ISBN 978-0-06-073146-5

Hurwitz's compelling action hero, Deputy U.S. Marshal Tim Rackley (aka "the Troubleshooter"), takes on a formidable adversary in the fourth installment of this literate series (The Kill Clause , etc.). Walker Jameson, a veteran who survived hazardous duty during the first Iraq war, has managed against all odds to escape from California's Terminal Island Penitentiary. Jameson soon begins to leave a trail of bodies in his wake, and in order to forestall further slaughter, Rackley and his team must figure out why the prisoner broke out with only a short time left on his five-year sentence for stockpiling explosives. The clues point to a connection to the suicide of Jameson's sister, Theresa, who was seeking a new miracle drug manufactured by a powerful pharmaceutical company that offered the only ray of hope for her sick child. Hurwitz, who moves easily between the gritty scenes of violence and the more subtle abuses of power in corporate boardrooms, should gain new fans with this exciting thriller. (Sept.)