Title: Burn Up
Subtitle: The Secrets of Mylin – Book II
Author: Joe Klingler
Publisher: Cartosi LLC
ISBN: 978-1941156087
Pages: 484
Genre: Fiction /Thriller
Reviewed by: Jake Bishop
Pacific Book Review Star
Awarded to Books of Excellent Merit
Burn Up is Joe Klingler’s sequel to his novel Tune Up. The first book gave readers an up close and personal look at a San Francisco Police Officer named Dreeson and her partner, Qigiq, a visiting cop from Alaska. He’s a motorcycle aficionado who loves to put bikes to the test and she’s a four-wheel fan who puts pedal to the metal virtually every time she gets behind the wheel. Initially, they were assigned a vehicle/pedestrian accident that melded with a missing person’s investigation that segued into prostitution, kidnapping, murder and more. This time, they get even deeper involved with victims and survivors from the first go-round. Mylin is the victim—a young Chinese girl forced into the world’s oldest profession by her evil family. The survivor is her brother called Tuson. He’s a really bad dude who only gets even worse as the story progresses.
Klingler employed an interesting writing technique in the first book of the series. He had half of the story narrated by an individual who eventually becomes a big part of the story. That narrator, Joe, a freelance photographer, is also around in this iteration. He just doesn’t play as large a part. But the author continues to tell his story with a combination of third-person omnipotent prose plus first-person narration. In this round it comes from the particularly vile Tuson. By going inside his despicable thought processes, readers get a visceral feel for just how loathsome he is, and just how challenging it’s going to be for Mylin to escape his hold on her.
Murder investigations again play a key role as Dreeson and Qigiq look into some particularly hard-to-explain crime scenes. As they start to be explained however, connections begin to be made to Mylin’s precarious situation. Soon the FBI is involved and the two San Francisco detectives are ordered off cases they’ve been trying to unravel. Orders are orders, but so is commitment. They find other ways to doggedly pursue connections even as they dodge bullets but fail to dodge Tasers, date-rape drugs, and swinging doors that leave particularly nasty shiners.
Sequels, especially sequels that are the second book in trilogies, often sag under the weight of keeping characters vibrant and storylines cogent, credible, and compelling. Klingler’s effort stands up nicely, however. The snap of his dialogue is as tart as ever. Both key and supporting players continue to come alive on the page. While you think you know where the plot is heading, you’re persistently presented with surprise after surprise. If Tune Up, and Burn Up are any indication, and they most certainly are, then we’re all in for one hell of a ride when Lock Up follows these two first-rate examples of the thriller genre.
