Demolition Angel by Robert Crais

Bombers must have some serious OCD. Take "Mr. Red." He uses the same size and type of pipes, pipe caps, explosive, batteries, ignitors. Hell, he even uses plumber's tape wound clockwise over the pipe's threads. But he's upset because he's not on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List (they need his real name). And he really wants to be on that list.

Three years ago, Carol Starkey and her partner-lover Shug were disarming a bomb when a minor earthquake jiggled the mechanism setting off the device and killing both, but the EMTs were successful at saving Starkey. While she has physically recovered and working in the Criminal Conspiracy Unit, she is seriously messed up and has gone through a fistful of therapists. Now she eats Tagament like candy, smokes like a chimney, practically mainlines gin, and relives the explosion nightly in her dreams.

One of her former partners on the bomb squad, Charles Riggio, has just been blown to bits by a bomb with all the earmarks of Mr. Red. But after a long and drawn out investigation, Carol and Jack Pell of the ATF come to think that just maybe Riggio was killed by a copycat because one tiny little detail of Mr. Red's signature that Carol found was wrong on the Riggio bomb. That means the copycat must be inside the LAPD.

An imprisoned explosive nut tells Carol and Pell about a web chat room for explosive weirdos called Claudius and there have been rumors that Mr. Red has prowled the site. Carol sets up an screen name and tries to bait Mr. Red, but he ends up turning the tables on her jerking her chain over and over again until the final confrontation (that had me holding my breath) involving - you guessed it - a bomb.

A quick check of the author list shows that Crais is one of MRB's favorite authors. Crais writes PI stories with smart aleck Elvis Cole and Joe Pike who is, well, Joe Pike. While Cole and Pike have a bucketload of titles to their credit, this Starkey book appears to be a one and done. Make no mistake, this is one hardcore, gritty tale of a damaged woman trying, mostly unsuccessfully, to keep from becoming more damaged. Being entirely different from the Cole/Pike books is not a reason to shun the tale. You really feel for the pain Starkey has been carrying for three years, her frustration with the investigation, and silently cheer for her as things get tense. I thought this 2000 copyright was well worth it.

East Coast Don