Fuse Time

Police bomb expert David Renner risks his job and his life as he races aginst time to save Jillian Speirs, a beautiful British actress with a violent past, and track a mad bomber who has been terrorizing Los Angeles with his efficient and lethal bombs

This is the ultimate thriller for bomb aficionados. In Chapter One, the first explosion takes place, interrupting a gentleman's hot date as his "skull flew apart like eggshell under a hammer," and numerous explosions follow in various Los Angeles locales, with pithy discussions on how to make and defuse bombs. Byrd ( California Thriller ) spins a juicy tale of violence and sex but fails to generate much suspense. It is obvious that the L.A. police are wrong in their theory that each bomb was set by a different guy, and equally obvious that the right-thinking person is brilliant, burnt-out, vodka-swilling bomb expert David Renner, who suspects that a single freelance bomber is responsible even though there is no readily apparent link among the various bombings. The characters are intriguing, most notably Jillian Magid, a fetching actress who may or may not be in cahoots with the bomber but who definitely is Renner's type. Byrd's spicy writing ("In Venice Beach you could tattoo your dick on the sidewalk, swap Uzis for cotton candy, nobody would look twice") makes for a lively, if at times overbearing book.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.