Books: A Slow Burning

• Share

As every good thriller does, this one starts with a thrill: a helicopter smashes into the face of the Statue of Liberty. That brings on an architectural restorer; her fiance, an N.Y.P.D. detective; and her former lover, a research neurologist who can repair brain damage and bad attitudes with a computer and molecular smart bombs. An ingenious bio-tech love triangle ensues, as does the hunt for a sadistic killer with an acetylene torch. Then it's back to the top of Lady Liberty for the climax, a breakneck update of the finale to Hitchcock's 1942 tingler, Saboteur.

--By R.Z. Sheppard