Hell & Gone, by Duane Swierczynski (REVIEW) — Down the Rabbit Hole to Hell
If Charlie Hardie—the hero of author Duane Swierczynski’s Fun & Games —was channeling Bruce Willis as tough cop Officer John McClane in all his Die Hard , “Yippee-ki-yay, m***...!” glory (and believe me, he was ), then the follow-up, Hell & Gone , finds him walking in the footsteps of Willis’ conflicted convict James Cole from Twelve Monkeys , with a bit of Alice in Wonderland (if Alice were a bruiser sporting a five-o’clock shadow) and its down-the-rabbit-hole trippiness thrown in for good measure. Intrigued? You should be, because Swierczynski is the real deal when it comes to delivering pulse-pounding, visually-dynamic, explosively-energetic, and insanely-addictive action-suspense-crime-fiction thrillers. And, as outrageously good as the first in the Hardie trilogy (see my review here ) was? I think the second, Hell & Gone , is that much better. ✠ ✠ ✠ ✠ ✠ ✠ ✠ Hell & Gone picks up right where the previous book l...