THE MERCHANT OF DEATH

A federal agent and a man on the lam re-enact Shakespeare when they try to expose a major con job.

When Henry Page flees Indianapolis FBI agent Ryan “Mac” McGuinness, it’s not the first time he’s run out on the agent—or on anyone else in his life. But he’s more regretful than usual, and not just because Mac was shot while protecting Henry at their hideout in Mac’s family’s cabin. Although they were on the verge of consummating an undeniable passion, Henry convinces himself it would have been one of the biggest mistakes of a life already full of wrong turns, bad decisions and hard luck. He’s a thief and Mac’s the law, and though Henry was a key witness in an upcoming trial, it’s back to his life of crime, mostly because his twin sister, Viola, needs him. It’s also time for him to return to being Sebastian Hanes, as his late, boozy, failed actress of a mother named him. Henry feels responsible for Viola and the accident that left her with the mind of a child. She even fears the people at the expensive care center that demands exorbitant monthly fees—and constant scams by Henry. The suspicious death of an elderly resident of the center goads Henry into stashing Viola in a more-or-less safe place and dressing up to take her place and expose what he’s sure is a big fraud. Then Mac, who’s in the doghouse for letting his witness get away, gets pulled into the sting. Although he’s never considered himself remotely straight, he finds that Henry/Sebastian’s role as Viola adds a whole new tantalizing layer of complexity—and bids him put his career and his life on the line to help the man he loves and save sweet, vulnerable Viola.

Henry and Rock’s witty, gritty, occasionally graphic sequel to Two Gentlemen From Altona (2014) forces a buttoned-down G-man to face 50 shades of ambiguity, not only of his endearing co-hero, but also of the odd couple’s future together.