The sequel to Alaska Deadly finds Memphis-based P.I. Race Warren heading back north to track down a vengeful killer shaman.
Private Investigator Race Warren is based in Memphis. The former cop he saved in his previous adventure, detailed in the novel Alaska Deadly, is in a coma but still alive. Warren might be forgiven for thinking he could sign off on that case, but people are out to finish the cop. They are also targeting a young anthropologist, part of a team uncovering a bizarre tribal cult that’s been implicated in the murder of a native woman. Soon Warren finds himself heading back to Alaska on the tail of a vengeful killer shaman. To complicate matters further, a Russian oligarch has set his henchmen on the warpath and Warren’s girlfriend has been kidnapped by hoodlums on snow mobiles.
Written by J.L. Askew, ALASKA BLOODLUST is certainly action-packed. The plot is enjoyably pulpy and best enjoyed without taking the proceedings too seriously. Though it is neither subtle nor sophisticated, the prose does deliver non-stop hardboiled thrills. Askew is very good with action sequences that are frequently explicitly violent. For example: “There was a man on the floor, shot in the neck with a severed vertebrae […] the head distended unnaturally in a growing swath of blood; a mutilated body with most of the neck ripped out, leaving a few bloody tatters over the gaping chasm.” At other points he shows a flare for kinetic, high-octane chases that almost always end in chaos: “Hitting the massive concrete made a booming sound, the car leaping in the air, bounding onto the span, its surface covered with broken asphalt, accumulated soil, rotted tree branches, and frozen detritus, sending the car fishtailing.”
The dialogue sequences verge on the prosaic. They are purely functional, though often overlong, with characters talking at rather than to each other. However, outside of these sometimes-ponderous exchanges, Askew keeps to tight, clipped prose—and the pages zip by. A shootout in a hospital is particularly well-choreographed. Thriller fans and those seeking the old-fashioned blood and guts of a traditional tough-guy novel will find much to enjoy here.
~Kent Lane for IndieReader