Book details

Columbus is back and as deadly as ever. But the hunter has now become the hunted, in this sequel to the national bestseller The Silver Bear.He told you not to like him. To get close to Columbus, the Silver Bear, means death. Exactly whose death remains to be determined.

Recouping in Europe after losing his fence and best friend during his mission to assassinate his father, Columbus now finds his reverie interrupted by multiple assassins searching for the elusive Silver Bear. As Columbus eliminates each killer, more and more appear—a hydra effect he can only eliminate by finding the origin of the hit, a source connected to his own past. Racing across the globe, as both hunter and hunted, Columbus’ travels take him to Italy, where he meets a mysterious woman named Risina. A woman with her own secret past, she may be Columbus’ only hope of salvation.

From Publishers Weekly

At the start of Haas's less than compelling second thriller to feature the world-weary assassin who calls himself Columbus (after Silver Bear), William Ryan, who serves as Columbus's middleman, hires him to kill Jiri Dolezal, a Czech banker involved with prostitution and drug dealing. In the course of preparing to murder Dolezal, Columbus meets and falls in love with an attractive rare book dealer in Rome, Risina Lorenzana. Columbus considers renouncing violence, even as he keeps his true nature a secret from Risina. After a gunman takes out Ryan, Columbus realizes that it won't be so easy to retire, as he himself becomes a target. The amoral killer seeking a normal life is a familiar theme that often works, but Haas fails to imbue his hero with enough emotional depth to make readers care about the man. Even the one highly unusual aspect of Columbus's backstory—he killed his own father at his father's request—gets lost amid formulaic action scenes. (Nov.)
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Review

“Like Jeff Lindsay’s Dexter, Columbus is a thoroughly likable villain. He operates on the wrong side of the law, with his own moral code and his own unique sense of compassion. It’s impossible not to like the guy, even though he explicitly and repeatedly tells us not to, just as it’s impossible not to like the novel itself.” (David Pitt - Booklist )

“Haas’s second thriller to feature the world-weary assassin who calls himself Columbus. in the course of preparing to murder Dolezal, Columbus meets and falls in love with an attractive rare book dealer in Rome, Risina Lorenzana. Columbus considers renouncing violence, even as he keeps his true nature a secret from Risina. After a gunman takes out Ryan, Columbus realizes that it won’t be so easy to retire, as he himself becomes a target.” (Publishers Weekly )

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