Title: Lock Up
Subtitle: The Secrets of Mylin – Book III
Author: Joe Klingler
Publisher: Cartosi LLC
Genre: Fiction / Crime / Thriller
Pages: 378
Reviewed by: Jake Bishop
Pacific Book Review
Lock Up is the latest in The Secrets of Mylin Trilogy. Is it the final chapter? Hard to say, because while a lot of questions get answered, a lot of potential potboiling situations get set up. As is the case in previous books in this series, readers don’t need to be fully cognizant of everything that has been unveiled in preceding tomes. The author, Joe Klingler, does a good job of dropping in enough backstory to provide credible motivation for character action and behavior. One can immerse oneself in this story without being privy to everything that has come before. Doing so is easy due to both the author’s engaging style and the inherent energy built into this exciting techno-thriller.
The story itself is told from two different perspectives. One is the first person narrative of a young Asian woman in prison for killing her brother, a decidedly bad individual who deserved an even grislier death than he experienced. The other is a third person chronicle of the plot and people revolving around Mylin, the initial storyteller. They include a cast of characters from the volumes that preceded this one as well as some interesting new additions. Principal players are Kandy, a female cop from San Francisco who enjoys fast cars and hand-to-hand combat along with her partner Qigiq, an Alaskan police officer on temporary duty who’s happiest with a motorcycle between his legs and a knife in his hand that he retrieves from his boot to surprise miscreants and stop mayhem in its tracks. There’s also a handsome FBI black dude who’s calling the shots in this adventure plus a well-meaning fine arts photographer, a kinky chick with law enforcement aspirations and a guy who seems to know everything about anything having to do with languages, computers, and digital diversions. And those are just the good guys.
When Mylin is offered a second chance at life outside of prison walls if she’ll help the FBI, she becomes immersed in a tale of international and geopolitical maneuvering which involves exquisite paintings, secret nomenclature, and game-changing weaponry that multiple individuals and nations are after. Before you know it, heroes and villains are all involved in theft, shenanigans, and shoot-outs, that raise the suspense level to heart-palpitation levels.
Joe Klingler is a writer who knows what he wants to say and how he wants to say it. He plunges readers into situations which might seem incredible on the surface, yet he provides enough interest upfront and information within to make readers buy into his depictions of anguish, action, and an insatiable appetite for derring-do. Short, sharp sentences fill his prose with the bone-cracking snap – in the vein of contemporary crime writer Andrew Vachss. Dialogue whips back and forth and never sounds forced or supplied simply for plot exposition.
If you like writing which reads easily, plots that force your pulse to quicken, and characters you enjoy spending time with, go ahead and commit yourself to Lock Up.
