FRAMES PER SECOND

Eidson’s fifth (Adrenaline, 1998, etc.) and best concerns a likable news photographer and the scheming scoundrels he disenchants. Among them are a ruthless cult leader, a corrupt US senator, a rogue FBI agent, and an ambitious gangster. In a slightly different category is the ambiguous Kurt Tattinger, who happens to be Ben Harris’s boss at Insider magazine. Well, something more than just his boss. Tattinger is now husband to Ben’s ex-wife and stepfather to his two children. On the face of it, he’s done a world-class job of supplanting Ben, but he can’t make himself believe that. In Tattinger, rampant insecurity and uncut envy battle essential decency. He wants to be a good man, but the truth is, nothing would please him more than for Ben to disappear—permanently. And, actually, someone’s trying hard to bring that about. The screw tightens when a pipe bomb meant for Ben explodes in his van, killing the colleague who was driving it. Suddenly our hero has a cause. He dedicates himself to finding out which of his enemies murdered Peter Gallagher, his best friend. He’s joined in this search by Sarah Gallagher, Peter’s ex-wife. Having hired on at Insider, Sarah takes her former husband’s place as the writing half of a crack investigative team. Together, Ben and Sarah go on surveillance, track down leads, and sniff out conspiracies, and in the process they investigate the interesting ways in which their behavior toward one another keeps changing. At length they find satisfactory answers to a variety of puzzles, including some they didn’t even know existed. Good guys to root for, villains to hoot at—both sides refreshingly believable—in a story that bristles with action and deft twists of plot. With this one, Eidson turns a corner.