BUZZ MONKEY

Ad exec Hill’s first novel sets a thrill-seeking researcher against an angry druglord, the DEA, a family of killers, and just about everybody else in the Georgia hills.

The thriving firm of Polymath, Inc., which fields 200 reference queries a day, is only a front for the real source of Top Kiernan’s sizable income. Top’s been working as a mercenary for Shaw’s Mercantile, a retrieval specialist who grabs money and people away from bad guys who grabbed them first. But now Shaw’s has put him out to pasture because his boundless appetite for adrenaline highs is turning him into a loose cannon. No problem, though, since Colombian regional coke distributor Raoul Menes guarantees Top steady work a lot closer to home. Menes’s latest deal with Top’s old friend Dee Lane, who ordinarily sticks to the straight and narrow as a dope smuggler, has disappeared, leaving Menes with no money, no product, and a red face. Since drug kingpins can’t afford a red face, Menes goes after Top, telling him that even if Dee Lane didn’t leave the money with Top, he’d better find it anyway, and having one of Polymath’s researchers killed to underscore his point. It’s just the ticket to keep Top’s motor revving as his more risk-averse associates, from bantam Polymath secretary Benny Culpepper to Vinyl Man, Dee Lane’s partner in Groovology, trail in his wake.

Guaranteed to give a Top-like buzz to the most jaded action fans.