"Fun and Games" by Duane Swierczynski (Mulholland)

Fun and Games
Duane Swierczynski
304 pp. Mulholland Books. $14.99
Pub. Date: 6/20/2011
ISBN-13: 9780316133289

Reviewed by Paul Stotts

Publisher Blurb: Charlie Hardie, an ex-cop still reeling from the revenge killing of his former partner's entire family, fears one thing above all else: that he'll suffer the same fate.

Languishing in self-imposed exile, Hardie has become a glorified house sitter. His latest gig comes replete with an illegally squatting B-movie actress who rants about hit men who specialize in making deaths look like accidents. Unfortunately, it's the real deal. Hardie finds himself squared off against a small army of the most lethal men in the world: The Accident People.

It's nothing personal-the girl just happens to be the next name on their list. For Hardie, though, it's intensely personal. He's not about to let more innocent people die. Not on his watch.

Of all the sitting jobs, housesitting seems the easiest. Beats the hell out of babysitting. Never met a house that'd have the mood swings of a toddler. But housesitting is a simple life: sit around, watch DVDs, start a book blog, and hope a natural disaster doesn't strike. Because getting your house sucked up Wizard-of-Oz style kills your career. For those who want to escape reality like Kurt Russell wants to escape New York, it's the perfect occupation.

Unless reality fights back. Throws both the monkey and the wrench into your best-laid slacker plans. Housesitting isn't fun and games when someone is trying to kill you. And you don't know why.

I loved Duane Swierczynski's novel Expiration Date, so I was excited for his new novel Fun and Games, the first volume of Swierczynski's Charlie Hardie trilogy. If the rest of the trilogy is as awesome as Fun and Games, this series is going to be one for the crime fiction Hall of Fame. Every year or so, you get a novel that blows you away. That makes you remember why reading is so damn fun. A book that takes a Louisville Slugger to your Id, Ego, and Superego, cracking it upside its collective Freudian head.

Fun and Games is that book for me. People talk about page-turners, but Fun and Games will have you ignoring your spouse, kids, bodily functions, and that pesky raccoon that keeps dumpster diving in your bins. Swierczynski immediately hooks you in from the first chapter, dropping you into a massive conspiracy that centers around Lane Madden, a Hollywood starlet with a checkered past. Stumbling into this is Charlie Hardie, a housesitter with a checkered past. A past he drowns with alcohol and self-pity.

The key here is the checkered past of both main characters. It is where the answers reside. The question: why are some highly organized people trying to kill them? And make it look like an accident?

The action never stops, never pauses. Swierczynski raises the danger for Hardie and Madden with each new chapter, their outlook for survival bleak. The killers are intelligent, resourceful, and driven. Authors stack the odds against their characters, but not to this extent. The setup is so outstanding, you can't imagine how Charlie and Lane will survive. And this is what makes you continue reading, makes you ignore your family, or the fact your goldfish has gone belly up.

If you haven't experienced Duane Swierczynski's work, Fun and Games is a great place to jump in. You won't regret it. Right now, this is the best book I've read this year. And it will take an amazing novel to change that.