Unknown Remains

This assured crime novel from Leonard (Eyes Closed Tight) opens on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, in New York City. Jack McCann is in his office on the 89th floor of the north tower of the World Trade Center when the first plane hits. He’s presumed dead, but debt collectors Duane Cobb and Ruben Diaz, who were planning to call on Jack that day, hope this isn’t so. Later in the month, Cobb and Diaz drive to Connecticut to visit Jack’s wife, Diane, who has discovered that Jack cleaned out their bank accounts and embezzled $750,000 at work shortly before 9/11; he also had a girlfriend in Manhattan. Cobb and Diaz start harassing Diane to either find Jack or collect his debt from his life insurance. She brushes them off and goes to see the girlfriend. Frequent flashbacks are a bit confusing, but Leonard does a good job guiding the reader down one rabbit hole after another as the plot twists and turns. [em]Agents: Andrew Wylie and Jeffrey Posternak, Wylie Agency. (May) [/em]