Hard As Nails
Dan Simmons
(Reviewer - Rebecca Brown)
2003 St. Martin's/Minotaur
ISBN: 0312305281

Joe Kurtz & his parole officer are gunned down as they leave her office.

One of my favorite characters on the edge of society is back, complete with one hellatious headache. His respected parole officer, Peg O'Toole, is in a coma, & while Kurtz is recovering in the same hospital he is visited by a) an ex-military type in a wheelchair & his Vietnamese partner; b) Peg O'Toole's fiance who is a bigshot in security & the spitting image of Pierce Brosnan, although not nearly as nice, & c) Detectives Kemper & King from the Buffalo Police Dept.

Everyone wants to know what Kurtz knows, & as everyone who has read Dan Simmons' Hard Case & Hard Freeze, this ex-convict, ex-PI knows how to vanish in front of everyone's eyes ... & so he does.

However, just before Peg O'Toole & he had made their way to the parking garage where they were targeted by the shooters, she had shown him some photos of an abandoned amusement park. Why? & why, if she already had a fiance, had she commented that she was probably going to use Arlene's SweetheartSearch.com dating services?

Meanwhile two of Buffalo's most shady characters, the gay don Tomas Gonzaga & the female don-in-waiting, Angelina Farino Ferrara are worried -- someone is slaughtering their heroin dealers & addicts, leaving globs of blood all over the place & carting off the bodies.

My favorite side-kick Arlene is back at her desk, chain-smoking & making good money with her dot com companies. Kurtz & Arlene have a lot of history, & in Hard As Nails she proves her mettle.

Out of Kurtz's past has come Detective Rigby King. They go a long way back, from the same orphanage & a sexy time or two in the catacombs below. They also served in the military in Asia, however, now there is no love lost between them ... or is there?

Dan Simmons writes a hard driving adventure of below-the-radar warfare in western New York state, an insane & methodical killer who was supposed to be dead, an illegal immigrant, a ghastly Halloween celebration & a town that should look like a dump, yet reeks of prosperity. Kurtz is a hero I'd like to have on my side against villains I'm glad he's dealing with. & talk about honor among thieves!

I have relished each of Dan Simmons' Kurtz books & I look forward to the next.
(01/04/04)

Rebecca