What have we got? Boom. Bang. Biff. Boredom, you’re going down!
HEAT 2 with its strident staccato and cinematic eye is some kind of crime fiction masterpiece.
Sired by cinema, delivered by literature, this book cries instant classic from its nutshell narrative prologue covering the final events of the film, HEAT, to its immediate pick up of the plight and flight of Chris, (Val Kilmer’s character), and its starburst explosion into parallel narratives, HEAT 2 is a sequel among equals.
Written by Heat’s originator, Michael Mann in collaboration with award winning wordsmith, Meg Gardiner, HEAT 2 is an epic back story and continuation story all in one.
Following twenty five pages of film aftermath, HEAT 2 plunges readers back to 1988 Chicago where Vincent Hanna (portrayed by Al Pacino in the film) is a cop investigating a home invasion rape and robbery gang. This yarn alone is worth the price of purchase, a stand alone story that weaves and spirals into a super suspenseful saga that straddles cities and countries, spans twelve years and ends the 20th Century with a bang.
Like its predecessor, HEAT 2 hums with a gleeful blurring of the moral line between the good guys and the bad guys, except for one psycho killer called Wardell. He is a loathsome creature of leviathan evil, a monstrous misogynist of nightmare proportion.
A frenetic and explosive thriller, intense and flamboyant, HEAT 2 runs on high octane violence, distilled dread, and unsettling suspense. Readers will emerge breathless, shaken, from the terse sentences and epic parallel stories that collide and combust in this furiously paced narrative.
Loath to supply a review scattered with spoiler alerts, suffice it to say HEAT 2 will more than satisfy fans of the film, a well worth the wait re-acquaintance of characters a quarter of a century on.
HEAT 2 by Michael Mann and Meg Gardiner is published by Harper Collins
