Darwin's Blade: A Novel of Suspense
Genre-jumping novelist Dan Simmons makes a splash no matter where he  leaps. His 1985 horror debut,The  Song of Kali, garnered the World Fantasy Award; the vampiricCarrion Comforttook the Bram  Stoker Award;Hyperion,  the opening volume of his Hyperion saga, snagged the Hugo. In 1999'sThe Crook Factory, Simmons spun  fact, fiction, and Ernest Hemingway into a ripe WWII spy thriller, and withDarwin's Blade, Simmons dives headlong into the suspense pool.The country's foremost accident investigator, Dr. Darwin Minor, reconstructs  automobile accidents for his friends, Lawrence and Trudy Stewart, whose firm  specializes in uncovering lucrative, yet unremarkable, insurance fraud. Odd,  then, that two Russian hit men in a souped-up Mercedes E 340 attempt to murder  Dar in a 160 mph car chase that results in an airborne Mercedes and two dead  Russians.Sydney Olson, the California state's attorney's chief investigator, who's  investigating an accomplice-murdering fraud ring, plans to release a story  highlighting the Russian mafia's involvement and Dar's name, and then to spend a  lot of bodyguard-time with Dar.Dar returned her challenging gaze. Suddenly she did not look like  Stockard Channing to him anymore. "You're staking me out like that goat in the  dinosaur movie...Jurassic Park.""Exactly," said Sydney Olson, smiling openly at Dar now.Lawrence raised his hand like a schoolboy."I just don't want to find my friend Dar's bloody leg on my moon roof someday,  okay?"As the bond between Dar and Sydney grows, so grow the assassination attempts, a  gruesome body count, and the realization that a state-wide charitable  organization funded by the country's most famous defense attorney is behind the  murderous ring.With its tight plot, memorable and likable cast, and brisk, intelligent  narrative,Darwin's Bladehas "series" written all over it. Better make  room on the Edgar dais now.--Michael Hudson--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.