Hell and Gone

At the start of Swierczynski’s frenetic, breathless second action thriller featuring ex-cop Charlie Hardie, the shadowy Accident People have Hardie, who was put through the wringer in the first book (June 2011’s Fun and Games), in their clutches. While his friend Deke Clark, an FBI agent, frantically tries to trace his whereabouts, Hardie finds himself made warden of a surreal underground prison, whose location and true purpose are hidden. With no good options, he does his best to probe the facility’s weak spots, and accurately assess who can, and who can’t, be trusted. Those waiting for the payoff promised in the prologue, in which college student Julie Lippman learns that her boyfriend has supposedly died in a plane crash after spending a semester break building new houses for the poor, will feel amply rewarded by the end. That it’s impossible to guess what’s coming in the third and final installment will tantalize, rather than frustrate, readers. (Oct.)