Full Ratchet

The pseudonymous Cooper's implausible second Silas Cade thriller (after 2012's Clawback) takes the tough guy accountant to Pittsburgh, near the home of his newly discovered long-lost brother, Dave, to audit a shady computer company, Clay Micro. Those in charge at the company don't react well to Silas's casual gun-play, castration threats, and light dismemberment, and bring in heavily armed Russian gangsters to retaliate. Silas then realizes there may be more going on than a simple case of institutional malfeasance. Worse, Silas has managed to drag Dave with him into the gun-sights of the Mafia. Armed gangs rampage at cross-purposes as Silas struggles to keep himself and his brother alive long enough to find out which of Clay Micro's secrets is worth killing for. Somewhere there is a thrilling tale of a stone-jawed two-fisted accountant fighting evil with a gun in one hand and a ledger book in the other, but this over-the-top power fantasy is not it. Agent: Heide Lange, Sanford J. Greenburger Associates. (July)