cover image Criss Cross

Criss Cross

Tom Kakonis. St. Martin's Press, $18.95 (322pp) ISBN 978-0-312-03728-4

Making the wrong choice when two women beckon can nearly get you killed, as macho security guard and disillusioned ex-cop Mitchell Morse learns the hard way. Starla Hudek, a cashier at the Grand Rapids, Mich., store where Morse works, wants his body. She also wants him to assist her and her beefy, estranged husband, baldness quack, Milo ``Meat'' Pitts, in an armored-car heist on Christmas Eve. There's a falling-out among thieves, which keeps the suspense taut, as Kakonis ( Michigan Roll ), a poet of raunch, brings to life the misfits and desperate dreamers who inhabit the shadowy side of ``a vanilla milkshake town.'' Pitts's cohorts include a sidekick dumb enough to don a mask and rob a bank on Halloween and bachelor twin brothers with a mean streak. Deft plotting, in-depth characterization and devilish humor add up to a riveting read. (Jan.)