With so many hard-bitten heroes vying for readers' attention, John Burns' Max Chard series has formidable obstacles to overcome. But the reason this witty and inventive sequence works so well is that Burns' tabloid hack is such a fully rounded anti-hero. Packing his books with highly credible Fleet Street background and mixing this into pleasingly skewed thriller plots is a formula that is paying dividends.
When Max learns that his newspaper has decided to buy the story of a woman and her boyfriend who are hiding in protective custody, Max finds himself having to deal with the gang involved, who have netted £5 million from a safe deposit robbery. But soon bodies begin to fall, and Max is sent to the couple's secret hideaway to get the low-down on them. Needless to say, there are elements (such as the sexually available blonde Cindy Reilly) that convince Max that nothing is as it seems.
A particular pleasure of Burns' books is the way the humour arises from the always plausible plotting: however outrageous, the authenticity of the hack's life always persuades us to accept the unlikely goings-on. Max remains a character that the reader is more than happy to spend time with: we wouldn't want to be him, but we enjoy every moment of his at-the-edge lifestyle with relish. The pacing, too, is handled with the skill of a master, and as Max comes closer and closer to the solution, there is subtly concealed acceleration - no set-pieces, but solidly realised tension.
