From Publishers Weekly:
Detective Sergeant Mulheisen, titular hero of Jackson's freewheeling Mulheisen series (Man with an Axe, etc.), is all but absent from this ninth installment. Occupying center stage are his nemeses, freelance pistoleros Joe Service and Helen Sedlacek, this time caught in a web of double- and triple-crosses between secret U.S. intelligence cabals and deep-cover agents from the former Yugoslavia. Joe and Helen, once employed by the mob, are now working for a former American colonel who runs a vigilante group called the Lucani. Composed of intelligence and military personnel fed up with the sluggishness of governments and tribunals, the Lucani exact violent justice on international criminals. Following the disappearance of Lucani agent "Franko" (who recently penetrated a Serbian drug cartel), the colonel recruits Joe and Helen to chase the erstwhile agent from Kosovo to the Serbian community in Butte, Mont. Complicating matters is a trigger-happy Serbian-American thug named Bazok (the "Badger"), who may be a cartel assassin or a rival deep-cover agent. Joe is more interested in retiring to a quiet corner of bucolic Montana so that he and Helen can enjoy quality time together than in finding Franko, but he takes notice when the irrepressible Badger shows up and starts blasting his way through Butte, also on Franko's trail. Joe, Helen and their ilk have too much fun with sex, drugs, guns and cliched banter to really get down to the business of international crime fighting. Without the counterbalancing weight of Mulheisen, the larks overwhelm Jackson's intricate suspense plot.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist:
Joe Service and Helen Sedlacek, two of the featured players in Jackson's superb Fang Mulheisen novels, are now on their own. Formerly a freelancer for the Mafia, Service is currently employed by a group of rogue government agents called the Lucani. Traveling with Mafia princess Sedlacek, his lover and co-conspirator, Service heads to Montana to track down a Lucani agent who went missing in Kosovo and may have been spotted in Butte. Maneuvers and counter-maneuvers dominate the action as Joe and Helen look for a way to cut their Lucani ties while shadow boxing with an assassin called the Badger, who is in Butte to kill the missing agent. Jackson balances all these elements effectively, but it is the interpersonal dynamics between Joe and Helen that occupy center stage: Can a couple of good-hearted criminals with competing egos find a quiet life for themselves in the Montana wilderness? We hope so, but we also miss the galvanizing presence of Detroit cop Mulheisen, determined to put Service behind bars. Joe and Helen do fine on their own, but here's hoping Jackson brings the whole gang back together eventually. Bill Ott
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