Well, here's good stuff to read.....a keep-you-up-late kickass thriller to dive into........the 20-years-later sequel to "The Wind Chill Factor", which we raved about this past March 9th.
When we say 20 years later, we mean both the time frame of the story and the sequel's publication.....
Once again, ex-novelist and recovered alcoholic John Cooper, having survived a previous battle with Neo-Nazis in Germany, must return to clash with a whole new slew of Nazis, goons, and a host of shady spies and assassins whose various criss-crossing agendas remain murky and mysterious........
And that's why we can't quite shower this sequel with the love we gave to "The Wind Chill Factor".....
Author Gifford over-populated his plot with so many characters competing for our attention, we almost came close to setting up an NCAA bracket chart to organize them as to who's a good guy, who's a bad guy and who's a morally conflicted somewhere-in-between guy....
Plot twists pile up, mostly related to everybody's real identities and what they're really up to.....and just as any good thriller should, the book'll have you racing through the final chapters to the satisfying endgame.
With so many characters to deal with (or dispose of), Gifford has to rack up a suitably impressive body count for his climax....(at least triple the amount of the first book). Not one to mess with success, the author once again stages his most spectacular mayhem in the middle of a raging snowstorm.......he might as well have titled this 'The Wind Chillier Factor'.......
The BQ says read the two books back to back.......for a an action-packed grand tour of global villainy, twisted international spycraft laced with some gallows humor......and a bizarre but compelling star-crossed romantic subplot that keeps the whole story moving. (We won't reveal any more than that, to keep this post spoiler-free.....)
3 & 1/2 stars (***1/2)......cause you can never have enough dead Nazis lying around in snow drifts......
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