Point and Shoot: A Charlie Hardie Novel

While not quite up to the standard of its predecessors, the concluding volume in the Charlie Hardie trilogy (after 2011’s Hell and Gone) offers Swierczynski’s appealing blend of bizarre plot developments and frenetic prose. The one-time police consultant’s adventures began when a house-sitting gig in Los Angeles led to his crossing paths with the Accident People, killers who stage murders designed to look accidental. Hardie later became a murder suspect and wound up incarcerated in an unusual prison. Now Hardie finds himself in his tightest spot yet—inside a satellite orbiting Earth. He’s there to guard “something” for the Cabal, the masters of the Accident People, who have promised not to harm his wife and son in return. The arrival on the satellite of a man who happens to look just like Hardie imperils our hero’s mission. Readers are in for a wild and immensely enjoyable ride. Agent: David Hale Smith, DHS Literary. (Apr.)