It's November 1963, and Wayne Tedrow, Jr., a Las Vegas cop, is given $6,000 and sent to Dallas with instructions to make sure a pimp named Wendell Durfee pays the price for knifing a blackjack dealer. A relatively straight cop from a corrupt city, Tedrow is on his way to ground zero of a pivotal event in American history.

But The Cold Six Thousand isn't about Wayne Tedrow's little errand; it's about the men Tedrow meets, the men who really murdered JFK the assassins, their confidants, their paymasters, their bosses. It's about men with the hubris to think that people and events can be manipulated for their own personal ends, whether they are motivated by greed or idealism or the sheer lust for power.

Author James Ellroy has covered this ground before in his novels of the seamy underbelly of Los Angeles like White Jazz and L.A. Confidential. The Cold Six Thousand is a sequel to his critically acclaimed novel American Tabloid, and many of the characters from that book show up here. Ward Littell, late of the FBI, and Pete Bonderant, ex-cop, CIA asset and killer, wheel and deal with the likes of Howard Hughes, J. Edgar Hoover and Floyd Patterson. History moves with lightning speed in the 1960s, and in Ellroy's fictional world, those who don't like the way it's moving plot to change its course, on the beaches of Cuba, the streets of Las Vegas and even in the jungles of Vietnam. Some warnings are warranted. The Cold Six Thousand is not a pretty book. The language is foul; the sex is careless; the violence is explicit; and the racism is disturbing in short, it's a painful mirror of the era. The good guys don't win because there are no good guys, just a lot of black with a few shades of gray. Ellroy's trademark staccato prose style reaches new crescendos. At times it's almost like a tone poem or a '50s beat rap.

It would be nice to think that James Ellroy is wrong, that history isn't really made by the greedy and the ugly and the amoral. But The Cold Six Thousand provides a graphic glimpse of how things worked back in the '60s, and our nation hasn't been the same since that turbulent era.

James Neal Webb can remember where he was when John F. Kennedy died.

As an assistant district attorney in the homicide bureau of the Brooklyn D.A.'s office, first-time author Rob Reuland certainly has the experience to turn out an adequate crime novel. But in the new thriller Hollowpoint, he does much more, taking the reader on a ride that few other lawyer-authors could match.

While keenly aware that his fictive turf is well trod, Reuland has taken a markedly different approach to his journey through it. There is a murder investigation; this is, after all, Reuland's field of expertise. But he has much more on his mind than a police/courtroom procedural. The characters of this novel are struggling to survive against the decay of modern society and their own personal demons. In Reuland's skilled hands, the normal trappings of the criminal justice system give way to a place where we can almost see the flyspecked walls and smell the stale odors of sweat and fear.

Consider Reuland's protagonist. Assistant District Attorney Andy Giobberti, known as Gio, is an emotionally devastated loner who has lost his young daughter in a tragic car accident for which he feels responsible. As the book begins, Gio is assigned to a murder case that is by all appearances a slam dunk. The police have a suspect in custody with a prior criminal record and a connection to the young girl who was shot to death.

Burnt-out and cynical, Gio is willing to push this case through the system, until an off-hand remark by the investigating detective compels him to re-examine the evidence. Gio discovers some uncomfortable parallels between the tragedy of the victim and his own travails. That knowledge offers Gio as well as those touched by the tragic murder an opportunity for redemption.

It isn't fair to pigeonhole this remarkable book as merely a thriller. While Hollowpoint succeeds quite admirably on that level, Reuland writes with enough insight and power to insure that his novel will be appreciated by readers searching for more than mere suspense.

Michael Grollman is a freelance writer in New Jersey.

Waking up with a hangover on the bathroom floor of a train station is never an enticing proposition. But doing so with absolutely no recollection of who you are or how you got there is even more unpleasant. Unfortunately, that is exactly the predicament faced by Luke, the protagonist in Ken Follett's latest thriller, Code to Zero.

Luke is a man without an identity, yet he possesses skills no homeless drunk would have. He effortlessly completes a crossword puzzle; he has no difficulty disarming and subduing an aggressive police officer; and he seems to know French. But he does not know who he is.

Set over less than 48 hours in 1958, Code to Zero takes place during the height of the American space race with the Soviet Union. The countdown for launch has begun for Explorer I, America's best hope to catch the Soviet Sputnik and regain the lead in space exploration.

As Luke tries to find out who he is and why he's important enough to have his identity erased, he uncovers long-kept secrets about four old friends from Harvard. The cast of characters is diverse: Anthony Carroll, now head of the Technical Services branch of the recently formed CIA; Billie Josephson, a brilliant researcher at Georgetown Mind Hospital; Bern Rothsten, Billie's ex-husband, now a famous author, and a longtime friend and rival of Luke's; and Luke's wife Elspeth, of whom he has no recollection.

Time is running out for Luke to reclaim his identity. He knows something that someone would like him to forget, and he realizes the key to piecing his life back together is somehow tied to the rocket that stands ready to launch at Cape Canaveral.

The author demonstrates a convincing understanding of American culture and language. Many readers may not be aware that Follett is British, and after reading Code to Zero they wouldn't suspect it.

Follett has made a name for himself by writing taut, well-researched thrillers, and Code to Zero is no exception.

Wes Breazeale is a freelance writer living in the Pacific Northwest.

Looking back on it, Tom Clancy's success seems as improbable as the fate of the protagonists in his many best-selling novels. The Bear and the Dragon to be released later this month, is the 11th novel from this prolific author. He has also created a successful fiction series (Op-Center) and written several nonfiction works on military topics. Not bad for a former insurance salesman.

Thomas L. Clancy, Jr. was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1947. He graduated from Loyola College with a major in English before settling into life as an insurance broker. Like so many English majors, he dreamed of writing a novel. In Clancy's case, his hobby of warfare became the inspiration for that novel; the technology of warfare, in particular, interested him. An avid gun collector, he eventually moved on to the study of more high-tech weaponry.

In the early 1980s, Clancy read about the captain of a Soviet frigate attempting to defect to Sweden, and the seed of a novel was planted. The Hunt for Red October was eventually published by an obscure military press. It was the first work of fiction for both, and only about 14,000 copies were printed. After President Ronald Reagan read it and pronounced it "the perfect yarn," the book shot up the New York Times bestseller list.

Sales climbed when the Navy and other intelligence sources expressed consternation at Clancy's technical accuracy. Despite the rumors, he isn't a retired spy he's simply a diligent researcher. He's been debriefed by Pentagon officials and is required reading in military colleges.

Success has brought personal gain as well as personal cost; he has a fine house overlooking Chesapeake Bay, but he's been swindled in a stock scam. He's been criticized for his technology-as-hero approach, but Clancy himself decries the "techno-thriller" label attached to his fiction. He's seen three of his novels become hit movies, and his Op-Center creation has become a TV mini-series.

The entertainment press is abuzz with talk of Ben Affleck taking over for Harrison Ford as the third actor to play Jack Ryan. All of this sets the stage for the forthcoming release of The Bear and the Dragon, wherein converging forces of Russia and China present President Jack Ryan with a crisis of devastating proportions. Can there be any doubt who will rule the bestseller lists in the fall?

Jim Webb writes from Nashville.

Jack Higgins has long been regarded as the alpha dog of the thriller genre. Ian Fleming is long gone, Trevanian has turned his hand to westerns, and Tom Clancy has been co-creating Op-Center books for the last several years, generally regarded less favorably than his outstanding Jack Ryan series. Day of Reckoning, the new Jack Higgins novel, brings together all of the elements that have long been staples in thrillers: the IRA, the Mossad, the British crime underworld, the Mafia, the FBI, and conspiracies within conspiracies.

When the journalist ex-wife of a prominent FBI agent is murdered while doing an expose on a Mafia don, the agent musters forces on both sides of the Atlantic to wreak his revenge. It seems that the don is hurting for liquid assets and has engaged in some nefarious dealings with Irish and Middle Eastern terrorists. It is left to reformed IRA assassin Sean Dillon to throw a monkey wrench into the works, first to discredit the mafioso and then to bring him to the Halls of Justice or the Gates of Hell. Dillon rather favors the latter.

Halfway 'round the world, one of New York's finest gets drafted as an unwilling security aide to a presidential hopeful in Les Standiford's latest, Black Mountain. The candidate, long an advocate (so he says) of environmental issues, is headed to the Rocky Mountains with his entourage of hangers-on and security personnel for a week of soul searching, relaxation, and communing with nature.

The friendly seaplane pilot drops the party at a remote mountain lake, then taxies across the smooth water, lifting off like Sky King into the blue of the Western sky. Moments later, the party is horrified to hear the sounds of failing engines, the whine of an airplane falling from the sky; they watch helplessly as the small plane crashes into a mountainside. Stranded, and with no choice but to backpack their way home to civilization, the somber trekkers set out. A series of accidents ensues, taking the lives of several of the group, and leaving the survivors convinced that they are the targets of a force more sinister than even Murphy's Law.

Black Mountain is a thoroughly modern novel of corruption, intrigue, and murder at the highest levels. As is often the case with the new wave of thrillers, the hero is a character with complex motivations, a common man in an uncommon situation certainly not the urbane, unruffled James Bondian superhero of thrillers past.

Day of Reckoning and Black Mountain provide a fascinating counterpoint to one another, as well as great back-to-back reading.

Paeans to a host of other latter-day crime-writing icons abound in this dark first novel of deprivation, detection and dissection. Former NYPD Detective Charlie "Birdman" Parker, has really had it bad. The son of a child-killing cop, Parker's alcoholism destroyed his marriage in name, while a deranged killer ended it in reality by gruesomely murdering his wife and child. Having quit the force amid ugly, suspicious rumors, Parker now ekes out a meager living catching escaped fugitives for sleazy bail bondsmen, and talks through his anguish with a sympathetic (and attractive) psychiatrist named Rachel Wolfe. One of his cases ropes him into what appears to be an internal Mafia squabble but quickly leads to something altogether more sinister and depraved.

Parker, who harbors a desperate yearning to aid other people's children as he could not his own, follows a bloodstained trail from New York's outer boroughs to the Louisiana swamps (William Hjortsberg, Falling Angel) where a bayou medicine woman (shades of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil) helps him uncover a grisly string of child slayings (cue Andrew Vachss). While this is happening, the killer known as Traveling Man, who murdered Parker's own family, resurfaces, forcing the detective to enlist the aid of a pair of career criminals befriended during his days on the force (think Robert B. Parker here, if Hawk were gay).

As the Mob struggle spills over into a full-blown feud and the bodies start piling up, Parker and a disheveled FBI agent named Woolrich race against time to decipher the gory language of Traveling Man's psychopathology and determine where he will strike next (Thomas Harris, big time). Traveling Man's MO has a terrible familiarity for Parker, which in turn increases his dependence on Rachel, which leads to well, you get the idea. Connolly's nods to established authors carry more than a touch of homage, and Connolly himself employs a strong command of the written word and his American locales. Every Dead Thing is a promising first attempt, and should appeal to many fans of the genre.

Adam Dunn writes reviews and features for Current Diversions and Speak magazine.

W.E.B. Griffin’s 27th novel and eighth in his Marine corps series, In Danger’s Path: A Corps Novel, is a mixture of real-life historical personalities that includes the likes of President Franklin Roosevelt, General Douglas MacArthur, Admiral Chester Nimitz, and OSS Director William Donovan. As with all of his novels, Griffin superimposes this story on a historically based scenario allowing his fictional characters the ability to interact with the icons of World War II.

Using missions in the Philippines, the Gobi Desert of Chinese Mongolia, and Second World War United States as the lens through which he portrays this complex yet cohesive novel, Griffin once again proves that he is a master of storytelling.

Portraying an odyssey full of secret missions, separated loves, and reacquainted friends, Griffin skillfully intertwines a full spectrum of plots. Brigadier General Fleming Pickering, newly appointed head of the OSS’ Pacific operations during World War II, is Griffin’s hero in this novel. President Roosevelt assigns Fleming this position in a desperate measure to find someone to unite the warring interests of MacArthur, Nimitz, and Donovan. Accompanying Pickering as protagonists are a myriad of characters in an underlining two-fold plot: rescuing a band of former American serviceman and their dependents on the run from Japanese capture and, at the same time, establishing a weather station in the Gobi Desert to aid aerial attacks against the Japanese homeland.

Men like Ed Banning, Ken McCoy, Jake Dillion, and, much to Pickering’s surprise, his own son Malcolm participate in this and other exciting missions. Together, they venture incognito into enemy territory fully aware of the risks involved. Each of Griffin’s characters has his own story interwoven into a seamless narrative that’s sure to surprise readers in the end.

In Danger’s Path is historical fiction defining the Pacific Rim during WWII and a coming-of-age story. Of the 125 different novels Griffin has written, including those written under each of his eight different pseudonyms, In Danger’s Path, may be his best yet.

Major Dominic Caraccilo is the Operations Officer of the 3rd Brigade, 101st Airborne (Air Assault) in Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

Tom Clancy's long-awaited novel has finally arrived, and fans will delight because it truly is vintage Clancy. For those who might have chafed at the Op Center series and wondered about tomorrow, you can now relax—it is here. You won't, however, be able to relax for too long because Rainbow Six moves fast and furiously and keeps you in suspense from beginning to end. Rainbow Six is the story of an elite multinational task force formed to battle international terrorism hence the term rainbow. It has chosen the best people from several countries, all in tip-top physical shape. The leader of this special group is none other than ex-Navy SEAL John Clark, whom many will remember from other Clancy novels. And this time the man some Clancy fans call the dark side double of Jack Ryan really has his hands full.

The task force is stationed in England since the British have the location, infrastructure and the security needed. On the first trip there, three men, apparently after a Spanish diplomat, attempt to hijack the team's commercial plane. Then, before the Rainbow team even settles into its new digs in England, they are called to help stop a bank robbery in Switzerland. An attempted kidnapping of an Austrian financier soon follows. And, as if that weren't enough, the team is confronted with a challenge at a theme park in Spain. It seems that a dozen or so terrorists have seized a group of children at the park and are threatening to kill them one at a time unless various demands are met, including release of prisoners held by France. The force then does its job as effectively as usual, but not without witnesses a great tragedy in the process.

But all is not simply guns and foes for Rainbow Six, for other things are going on that will ultimately impact its members. In New York, a group of homeless men is whisked off the street, and at least two women are kidnapped. And then there is a certain somebody who is entirely too curious about the presence of the Rainbow group in England.

This is simply a prelude to the next major challenge, one so great that it boggles the mind. This time the group must face a band of men and women so merciless and so extreme that nothing like it has confronted the world before. The success of this terrorist group would literally endanger life on earth as most know it.

Clancy admits this novel took a very long time to write, with each page taking as much as six hours to finish. He says it was well worth it—you will most certainly agree.

Lloyd Armour is a retired newspaper editor.