Hard Stop (Sam Acquillo Hamptons Mystery)
We leave California for the shores of New York’s Long Island and Chris Knopf’s Hard Stop (Permanent Press $28). The Hamptons are the haunt of retired design engineer Sam Acquillo, whose younger days in the boxing ring have left him with a head injury that could go lethal if re-injured. Brittle skull or not, Acquillo is still a physical guy who loathes walking away from a fight, especially if the other guy throws the first punch. This time out (after The Last Refuge
, Two Time
, and Head Wounds
), Acquillo is looking for his ex-boss’s disappeared girlfriend, Iku Kinjo. At fist he simply suspects young Iku simply grew tired of her much-older lover, but when a dead body turns up, Acquillo realizes he’s walked into another case of murder. The plot, which pits defenders of intellectual property rights against predatory financiers, is brisk, but the mainstay of this book is Acquillo himself. As he says, “I used to wake up in the morning feeling a rich blend of panic and hollow despair. Now I’m merely undecided.” This noir-ish series, energized by Acquillo’s sassy one-liners, is one of the finest around. — Mystery Scene, Spring 2009
