Angry Moon

Ry Caulder is a hit man's hit man: proud of his role in Jimmy Hoffa's death, scrupulously protective of ""innocents"" (anyone who's not an explicit target) and prejudiced against lawyers of every stripe. But everything starts going wrong for Caulder in this supernatural thriller when he accepts an assignment to kill his former mentor, Fredrickson. The CIA agent who taught Caulder the skills of his trade, Fredrickson lost his protege's respect when he carelessly allowed a young girl's death. Caulder tries every trick he knows on Frederickson, from planting plastique in his car to shooting him with mercury-tipped bullets, but is mystified to find Frederickson strangely unkillable. As Caulder puzzles over the possible explanation to this mystery, he must also protect his new girlfriend, single mother Stephanie, and her young son, Jason, whose association with Caulder has placed their lives in danger. Lankford deftly weaves supernatural elements into this grittily realistic story, causing the plot to take genuinely surprisingly twists and turns. Unfortunately, the novel falls back too often on graphic gore and stock hard-boiled prose, making the exploits of the death-defying Frederickson ultimately more repetitive than suspenseful. (Oct.)