Canary

Description

Every student needs a part-time job. Hers is hunting criminals. Sarie Holland is a good kid. An Honors student. She doesn't even drink. So when a narcotics cop busts her while she's doing a favour for a friend, she has a lot to lose. Desperate to avoid destroying her future, Sarie agrees to become a CI - a confidential informant. Armed only with a notebook, she turns out to be as good at catching criminals as she is at passing tests. But it's going to take more than one nineteen-year-old to clean up Philadelphia. Soon Sarie is caught in the middle of a power struggle between corrupt cops and warring gangs, with nothing on her side but stubbornness and smarts. Which is bad news for both the police and the underworld. Because when it comes to payback, CI #137 turns out to be a very fast learner...

Duane Swierczynski is the author of thrillers Expiration Date and Severance Package, and the three novels in the Charlie Hardie trilogy, FUN & GAMES, HELL & GONE and POINT & SHOOT. He also writes for Marvel Comics and co-authored Level 26 with CSI creator Anthony Zuiker.

Praise for Duane Swierczynski - . Duane Swierczynski is a much-needed breath of fresh air in the book world...This guy is a great storyteller. I never know what he is going to come up with or where he is going to take me. I just know I won't be complaining about a thing once I get there. The premise may be absurd, but it's good enough to propel the breathless action scenes that make Swierczynski's cinematic novels so much fun to read - on the couch or on the run. - New York Times A hip, dead smart novel, an entertaining start to what promises to be an addictive action trilogy - Australian Harks back to those days when the situations were dire but the delivery was light, in the best possible way. A terrific read - Courier Mail If non-stop, cool action sequences with fun characters are your thing, you need to read some Swierczynski stories - Wired The compelling premise pulls all our paranoid strings, and Swierczynski, like a mad scientist twirling dials, ratchets the tension ever tighter... the most unusual thriller series in a long, long time - Booklist Packs enough indestructible villains to satisfy a Die Hard fan, and each chapter ends on a cliffhanger... Written in deadpan sentences and funny as can be, this first installment of a projected trilogy left me greedy for more - Bloomberg