The Last Hit

This tasty confection of a crime novel from Welsh author Owen (Faith, Hope & Love) centers on Al “Tubbs” Bach, a Cardiff hit man who longs for a normal life free of his manipulative father-figure, T-Bone. Unfortunately, T-Bone, the Bandidos biker gang’s casually murderous leader, will never let go of Tubbs, the son of his slain lover, Foxy Mulldare. Meanwhile, Petra, notorious since inadvertently starting the fire that killed her parents, wants a better life, too, but first will have to escape predatory pimp Vexl and his thuggish sidekick, Gimpmon. Eschewing complex characterization, Owen draws Tubbs, T-Bone, et al. in bold, stark colors. Narrative flourishes like flashbacks and shifting viewpoints can’t conceal this briskly paced novel’s essential linearity as it races toward a foreordained confrontation between killers. (Nov.)