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The Blade Itself, Marcus Sakey, St. Martin's Minotaur, $6.99.

St. Martin's is really pushing this book, it's already an Independent Mystery Booksellers "Killer Books" pick for December, and I have to say, the hype is worth it. This book has one of the better, and scarier, set-ups I've read in awhile and it really sticks with you, even when you close the final page. It begins with the robbery of a pawnshop which goes very wrong; the two buddies pulling the job, Danny and Evan, react in different ways to a bad situation. Evan gets way violent, and Danny gets scared, and when he hears the wail of an oncoming siren, he simply walks out of the pawnshop to safety leaving Evan behind.

Evan does some serious time and when he gets out of jail, he's not in a forgiving mood, which is too bad for Danny, who has set himself up in a legit life as a contractor, with a girlfriend and a nice apartment near Wrigley Field in Chicago. The set-up of Danny's life is Harlan Coben-esque - no-one writes an ode to suburban life like Coben does, and Sakey gives us a similar look at middle class life in a big city. It makes the reader's regret - and the characters', of course - more intense, and the desire for the character to get back to the "right" world even stronger. Nothing is sweeter than when it seems like it's about to be lost. This novel is especially scary because Evan, unfortunately, is so believable a bad guy. He's not some kind of serial killing monster (or serial killer genius, a la Hannibal Lecter) but a guy who grew up with Danny who simply took a different path. If you have kids with any questionable friends you can almost see it happen when they hit their teens; knowing the grown up teen after he's been in prison can only mean trouble. Evan's idea of how to behave is not the idea of most of civilized society, and that's what crime novels are all about. There's a main character, maybe somewhat flawed but basically a good person, and a bomb of some kind is thrown into his/her life; then this character must deal with the consequences. How the character then deals with the "bomb" determines the dramatic arc of the novel.

Sakey's mastery of the dramatic arc is a very strong one; this book will have you really flipping pages to see how it's going to work out. As Evan more or less blackmails Danny into "one last job" Danny gives up - almost - everything he believes in. You're right along with him for the ride, considering his choices yourself as he makes them. Not all of them are good; Danny does eventually pass the "good guy" test, but not before several things he values have been lost or almost lost. If Dennis Lehane joined forces with Harlan Coben, their resulting book might read pretty much like this one, and I can't say much better than that. Happy reading, and welcome to a new talent.

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