Rex’s reviews of anything (but mostly books)

Here’s a little hypothetical question for you: what would you do if you happened upon a boatload of cash? What if its rightful owner was beyond caring? What if you really, really felt you needed it? What would a bad person do? What would Good People do?

Our story begins with a robbery and a murder, and then a fruitless trip to a fertility clinic. The robbery at a Chicago nightclub had netted the four perps a bundle of cash, but one of them disappeared with the loot after plugging Bobby Witkowski. Whether it’s the death of his brother or the disappearance of about $400K (along with a satchel full of illicit pharmaceuticals) that most angers Jack Witkowski is probably immaterial: suffice it to say he is greatly pissed.

When Chicagoans Tom and Anna Reed find bundles of hundred dollar bills stashed in the apartment of their recently deceased tenant, it seems like a gift from benevolent gods. They’re up to their ears in credit-card debt and their Lincoln Park conversion is mortgaged to the hilt after a long string a string of unsuccessful in vitro treatments. With their tenant dead and gone and no claimants in sight, however, the Reeds decide to let the childish ditty be their guide: “finders keepers…” becomes their mantra. Problem being that the losers aren’t merely weeping: Jack Witkowski is pretty certain that the young couple know where the cash is, and he is most assuredly Bad People.

And Witkowski isn’t the only dry-eyed loser out there: one very scary-looking Superfly-stylin’ drug dealer is pretty certain that the Reeds know where his pilfered inventory has disappeared to… and a CPD detective has a hunch as well, his about how to break the biggest case of the year and finish his career on a high note. Looks like everyone has major plans for several hundred grand in used bills… Read the rest of this entry »

Jason Palmer has returned to his old haunts in Chicago after an ignominious departure from the Army that had been his home for seven years; he’s returned broken and haunted by nightmares about those he’d left behind. Like most 27-year-olds, Palmer’s first impulse is to try to drown the nightmares with plenty of alcohol and meaningless sex, but so far, it hasn’t worked. When the murder of Michael Palmer, his only brother, leaves an orphaned eight-year-old in Jason’s care; it gives him the first trace of something to live for. But first, he has to just make it out alive.

Something nasty is going down on Chicago’s South Side in the neighborhood where Jason and Michael grew up; something whose tentacles reached out and pulled Michael under. Whatever is happening involves money, corruption, and murder – lots of murder; and Jason’s only chance is to expose it all to the right people. If he can find the right people, what with a crew or two of gangbangers and at least one nasty mercenary on his tail. With only a single CPD cop (foxy Latina Elena Cruz) and a couple of reformed gang members on his side; Jason’s chances look pretty slim. But the bad guys aren’t counting on Palmer’s ability to think fast in a crisis. You learn skills like that in Iraq… Read the rest of this entry »