HEAT

By Stuart Woods

HarperCollins, (1994)

Reviewed by Robert Thompson 5/29/94

HEAT is a pretty exciting book; it kept me up all night. The story flows right along, and while it is not the most "important" story to be published this year, it is a good Action/Adventure story to help you escape from your mundane troubles for a few hours.

Our hero is Jesse Warden, an ex-DEA agent. As the story begins, Jesse is serving a 20 year prison term for murder and theft of a million and a half dollars and lots of drugs from a DEA evidence locker. He didn't do it, but he is not an entirely good cop- several thousands of drug bust money did stick to his fingers when he had huge medical bills for his late wife.

Jesse is sprung from prison by his ex-boss, now a high muckety- muck in the Justice Department. He is to infiltrate a "religious"-supremacist-survivalist cult in Idaho.

Assuming a good cover identity he heads for St. Clair, Idaho where within a few months he has a new love interest, is working his way up the ladder rapidly in St. Clair's only "honest" business, and is approached by the cult leaders who want him to help them take over the company he works for. It takes only a few more weeks for him to become a trusted "lieutenant" of the cult's leader.

During all of this time, you are never sure what Jesse is going to do: Is he going to bust the cult, cut and run for South America, or join the cult for real? Well, I'm not telling.

I don't have too many complaints about the book: Sometimes the book is a bit too "James Bondish" with the bad guys so powerful that they are nearly cartoon villains, while most of the book has a more realistic approach to things. There are also a few too many "coincidences" for my taste, but I'll forgive the author because the story overall is very readable and enjoyable.

While his name may not be the best known among mystery readers, this is Stuart Woods' 12th (or more) novel to be published, so he is no novice. Some of his other titles include: DEAD EYES, SANTA FE RULES, WHITE CARGO, and CHIEFS

All in all, I enjoyed the story and his writing style.

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