Generally: sweet noir. Toby is 25, back in the small hometown he thought he had escaped. He's a part-time deputy with a wife and a child he calls 'the boy' for a few chapters. Toby kills bad guys (who are trying to kill him) as if he were in a gangster movie. He admires the police chief/sheriff who is !surprise! not quite what he seems. Toby is a sweet kid. He is funny in a not-trying way. My favorite line: "And anyway I had bigger worries. More Jordan brothers who wanted to kill me. And the station house was still a little bit on fire." (p. 218 in my copy.) Toby is exhausted, but manages to kill about a dozen bad guys while worrying about his son. Good thing it's a small town. Toby has to jog and run a fair amount after he destroys a few vehicles. Good character development. Good plot development with fair clues. More subtle than this author's earlier work.

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