Adrenaline on Every Page

Fun & Games by Duane Swierczynski
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Behind the Hollywood studio machine there's a hidden organization that controls the real lives of actors, not just their careers. They're called the Accident People. If they decide it's time for an actor to die from an overdose or drown on a movie set, then they make that happen--one way or another. When down-on-her-luck action star Lane Madden discovers a car trying to run her off a twisty canyon road, she knows that the Accident People are coming for her. But Madden is no quitter. She'll fight for her life, alongside ex-cop Charlie Hardie who stumbles into her path and is swallowed up in the trouble she carries with her.

Author Duane Swierczynski writes for Marvel comics, which explains the pulse-pounding pace he maintains throughout this book. You can't turn a page without someone getting shot at, punched in the face, injected with mysterious chemicals, thrown out of a window, or otherwise incapacitated. But no matter how bad it gets the characters keep plugging away. This is an intense, violent read, and if you like action it's definitely for you.

You'll be happy to know it's part of a trilogy, with the second title, Hell & Gone, published last year, and the third, Point & Shoot, scheduled for 2013.

If you like testosterone-driven, gut-punching action, you should also check out Josh Bazell's Beat The Reaper and its follow-up Wild Thing.

Review by Danny Hanbery