Fast paced action thriller about an owner of a shipping company Jack Vermillion who is trying to get his son moved to a safer prison. He is approached by Earl Pike, former army colonel, who wants to move a family gun collection to Mexico. Vermillion decides to go to the ATF to trade in Pike in order to win favor in saving his son. Things soon spiral out of control in a most unexpected way. Stoud's descriptions of police work, criminal procedings and the damage 50 mm sniper rounds do to someone wearing a bullet proof vest are amazing. Loved the tightly wound psychotic Earl Pike character. He was not a major character in the book but every time he made an appearance, you knew something real bad was going to happen. He was intelligent, yet lacking self control. Pike made the book worth reading. I could not put it down. Too bad the movie version may never be released. First bought by Bruce Wills to play Pike then dropped and bought by another person and tangled in lawsuits. I would love to see what Karl Urban did with the Pike part. Oh well maybe one day on DVD.
Excellent crime thriller where it becomes clear from very early on that no-one is getting away clean. Stroud's novel is filled with characters coated in the grime of NYC and tainted by past violences. It's occasionally grim, there's one passage that might bring tears and two or three occasions where you won't like the people you do like. It cuts through lots of crime clichés, gets grubbier and grubbier and really stands out from lots of similar fluff. I loved it, it's just a shame the film adaptation is sitting on a shelf somewhere, possibly never to see the light of day.
