In a triumph of content over style, Barger and his erstwhile sidekicks, the Zimmermans, offer up another face full of road dust (after 2003's Dead in 5 Heartbeats
) to feature California "bikerscum" hero, Patch Kincade. This time Patch gets tangled up with eastern European mobsters after four members of his motorcycle club (not, he emphasizes, a gang) are found dead, festooned with counterfeit cash and locked in a meat freezer. Patch is not so much a sympathetic character as he is a lucky bumbler of almost Shakespearean proportions; the double-crosses that mystify him can be seen coming a mile away and it's hard not to laugh at someone who gets himself sent to federal prison on a thousand-to-one shot at getting to a high-profile informant, but you still cheer when he pulls it all off in the end. This is a perfect escape for nostalgic and starry-eyed armchair bikers, of whom there are surprisingly many. Barger is also the author of the bestselling autobiography, Hell's Angel
. (June)
