Second Sinning

In Blue's fourth novel, an unremarkable hard-boiled effort, Wes Hayes, who was imprisoned for a fatal bar fight, has seemingly pulled his life back on track and is now the successful owner of a chain of beauty salons. Then his former wife asks him to derail an affair between her current husband, an abusive cop, and one of Hayes's hairdressers. His attempts to intervene backfire, and a bomb meant to kill Hayes instead claims the life of his beloved teenage daughter. Hayes launches a mission of revenge, focusing on three enemies who may have been behind the murder-the police officer, the brother of the man he killed in the bar fight, and the mobster who's been trying to muscle in on his businesses. Neither the plot nor the characters offer anything new, and the brutal violence will be off-putting to many.