Dynamite Road

The Weiss Agency has been commissioned to investigate corruption at a Northern California airport. Ex-cop P.I. Scott Weiss sends tough-as-nails operative Jim Bishop on assignment to infiltrate and uncover illegal activities. Weiss begins a few investigations of his own, one of which ties a dangerous assassin to the case Bishop is working. Weiss attempts to reel Bishop in, but Bishop forges ahead according to his own rules which lands him on a clandestine rendezvous in the middle of nowhere. He soon finds that his cover is compromised with no way of communicating a warning about what he discovered. In a race against time, Weiss must use his instincts and Bishop his hard edge to take down a criminal conspiracy. The characters are tough, passionate, and humanly flawed. The plot is wound tight with enough cliff-hangers to keep you teetering on the edge. Guaranteed to keep you turning the page--hard-boiled detective fiction at its finest!

This is the first novel I've read by Andrew and I have read 130 thrillers in the past year. 10 occupy my "hall of fame" shelf. Dynamite Road makes it 11. In the context of a tough guy mystery, Klavan spins out original gut punching turns of phrase in which I delight. My copy bleeds with yellow highlighter. Ignore, the name Shadowman and read the book for its brilliant simplicity.

It seems the trend these days in "series" novels to make the hero unlikeable. Dan Simmons is doing it in his "Hard" series; now Klavan in the debut novel of his series is doing the same thing with the seemingly inhuman Jim Bishop. Bishop uses women as if they were toothpicks, discarding them once he's done; he has only one real friend and that is his boss, Weiss. But still, Bishop is a man who gets the job done, recklessly if necessary.Klavan uses the green P.I. (referencing him as the author himself) effectively and the shifts between what's going on with Bishop and Weiss are intriguing. Weiss' character, who has a thing for prostitutes, also finds himself enamored with the enigmatic Julie Wyant, a woman who supposedly jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge. But he's sure this beautiful woman is still out there, given a new appearance by the Identity Man.There's a lot going on in this book: why would this killer Ben Fry want to be imprisoned in a high-tech, no escape prison? Why does he put this mysterious capsule into his thigh? A very entertaining book, and if the subsequent Weiss/Bishop novels can continue this refreshing change of pace, they should all be dynamite!

This is ellen in Atlanta - When I learned that Klavan would be starting a series featuring a private investigating firm, I started to worry - I stopped worrying when at the 1st sitting of reading Dynamite Road, I was over 125 pages in! It is wonderful and is gritty, exciting, and the characters are of the old school of PI's and a great start to a wonderful series - long live the Weiss Investigative Firm!