Season of Smoke: The Jack Palace Series

Pasquella’s nail-biting third Jack Palace novel (after 2019’s Carve the Heart) finds former convict Jack living in a trailer in Orangeville, Ontario, where he runs a security company. His criminal past catches up with him when Toronto mobster Sammy D’Angelo has his trailer torched. Sammy holds Jack responsible for the killing years ago of Tommy, one of his boys, though in fact it was Jack’s friend Grover who murdered Tommy. One of Sammy’s henchmen gives Jack an ultimatum—either he kills Grover or he gets killed himself. Meanwhile, Grover wants to rob Sammy’s counting house, where the mobster collects the cash from his operations, with Jack and a small team. Jack accepts a job as a collector for Sammy to get inside information, while Suzanne, Jack’s ex-wife, lends some romantic interest. Pasquella easily captures the seamy side of Toronto and gives readers an array of memorable bad guys. Devotees of gritty crime fiction will eagerly await Jack’s next outing. Agent: Kelvin Kong, K2 Literary (Canada). (Mar.)