ONSLAUGHT

Oldham unleashes a solo Steve Flynn on an unsuspecting world.

A featured player in Oldham’s Harry Christie series (Low Profile, 2105, etc.), sport-fishing captain Flynn’s locked, loaded, and ready for his close-up. You’d think that when his partner, Adam Castle, gets in Dutch with a gang of Albanian thugs led by the brutal Aleksander Bashkim, it would be Adam’s story that got the most play. But the Bashkim clan makes quick work of Adam, and the limelight quickly returns to Flynn, who smashes up Aleksander’s two steroid-enhanced sons, Pavli and Dardan, and declares mayhem on the Bashkim clan. Each side ups the ante from there. The Bashkims snatch Flynn’s ex-girlfriend, Karen Glass, and blow up crewman Jose Galvez. Flynn knifes Dardan. Aleksander gets his tame cop, Ramos Romero, to arrest Flynn. Flynn escapes with Romero’s lieutenant, Maria Santiag. Romero kills Maria’s best friend, Jane Munro. Finally, they reach a rapprochement of sorts: if Flynn takes a package on board Faye, his sport-fishing boat near Gran Canaria, and delivers it to a destination some 1,500 miles away, the Bashkims will release Karen. As in any agreement between tough guys, each side’s admiration for the other’s ruthlessness does little to staunch the bloodshed.

Flynn’s action-packed debut will tempt fans of the rock ’em, sock ’em school even if it disappoints Oldham’s more staid followers.