Marked Man

A middle-aged career criminal in an unhappy marriage takes a job that ends up with him over his head, in mortal danger, and out for revenge. Mark LaFarge is overweight and unhappy, but he makes enough money pulling heists and hits that he’s stuck in a rut. At least until he’s hired to pull a hit with unforeseen complications that leaves Mark looking for someone to blame. Even when that someone turns out to be a wealthy family with connections to a powerful secret society, Mark’s brutal retribution can’t be stopped. Chaykin’s stylish art suits a world of amoral criminal middlemen and women, and all the violence and sex that entails. But the story is disjointed, attempting to awkwardly weave in a second narrative involving an FBI agent tracking LaFarge that never really has any impact, instead taking up space in a short, rushed story that’s heavier on the tough guy bravado tone and atmosphere than it is on character development or pacing. Ideas and sometimes even characters are introduced and then disappear, never to be revisited and leaving the reader wondering why they are there to begin with. (Dec.)