The Room of White Fire

Bestseller Parker (The Famous and the Dead and five other Charlie Hood novels) provides a glimpse into the shadowy, disturbing, and morally indefensible world of outsourced interrogation in this excellent series launch. PI Roland Ford, a former cop, has what seems like a simple case: find Clay Hickman, a patient who escaped from Arcadia, a private mental hospital in San Diego County. Like Ford, Hickman is a veteran, but his wartime experiences—working in secret prisons and torture—have scarred him deeply. Hickman may or may not be insane, but he has a real mission: to “bring white fire to Deimos.” What this means becomes horrifyingly clear as the narrative unfolds. Ford picks up Hickman’s tracks quickly and pursues him from San Diego to Ukiah, in Northern California’s wine country. He also runs up against doctor Briggs Spencer, Arcadia’s founder, who coauthored a “torture book” for the CIA. Like many Parker heroes, Ford is a decent human being with more than a hint of sadness about him. Author tour. Agent: Robert Gottlieb, Trident Agency. (Aug.)

An earlier version of this review incorrectly listed the book's title.