Deadly Faux

Brooks returns to the world of Wolfgang Schmitt, reluctant undercover agent for the FBI, with great success. Wolfgang is rebuilding his shattered romantic life while considering how best to spend his illicit earnings from 2004's Bait and Switch when he finds himself once again drawn into the machinations of those more ruthless than him. With his fortune missing and the government taking far too close an interest in him, Wolfgang has no choice but to acquiesce to a demand that he once again apply his peculiar skills in the service of the FBI. This time, however, the operation is unsanctioned, the circle he is infiltrating is Las Vegas's mob community and his employer, ruthless businesswoman and aspiring widow Lynn Valentine is less in Wolfgang's skills as a trainer and far more interested in his fabricated talent as a contract assassin. Surrounded by killers, the amiable cynic soon learns that his is not the only life at stake; unless he can navigate the hidden shoals of criminality and conspiracy around him, a young woman will die. Nearly a decade may have passed since Wolfgang's first appearance but the affable rogue remains as charming as ever, in part because his air of cynical self-interest is clearly a patina over a far more sympathetic character. Brooks is clearly an advocate of tossing his characters into the deepest, most shark-infested waters; the result is a quick-moving, engaging comic escapade. (Oct.)