DEATH AND OTHER LOVERS

A reuniting of Shards partners Todd and Flynn, with American photojournalist Flynn again trusting the wrong woman, endangering Todd, and almost losing his own life. When Flynn's apartment, with all its photographic equipment, is torched and a plane he was supposed to be on is blown up, killing 220, he zeroes in on four enemies: a drug-lord, a ruined politician, a mercenary, and a Palestinian extremist. But four confrontations later, they seem not to be his problem. Who is? Requests for certain of his photographs keep popping up from an award-winning chemist at a pharmaceutical company, and while Flynn, Todd, and Todd's new partner, Shimoni, plus Detective Donnelly, search for it, a professional assassin hunts for Flynn—and finds him, for a violence-packed conclusion that (among other things) leaves Flynn relapsed into alcoholism. Transparent plotting but, as with Shards, a strong examination of partnerships, friendship, and loyalty. Shimoni's jealousies do get tiresome, however—as do Flynn's guilts. The most interesting character, Todd, has the least to do.