The Outland Strip
by Ben Sloane
1990, Gold Eagle
Zamora, the cartel heir from the last installment, needs to earn quick cash to get his uncle out of jail to reveal the hidden family billions. He also wants to kill a prison snitch, who escaped an assassination attempt which kills an old cop days from retirement. The snitch has taken off for the Outland Strip, a lunar gambling complex which is putting Las Vegas and Atlantic City out of business. Zamora teams up with other mobbed up, terrestrial casino owners and kills two birds with a multi-million ton garbage scow filled with nuclear waste.
Horn is more guilt ridden than usual, as he dumped his informant transport assignment on his buddy. Him and Winger head up to the moon, where they face bounty hunters on both sides of the law, those looking to kill the snitch and the others to earn the Federal bounty.
Slow to get started, and continues the mellowing tone since the first book, but gives some excellent action sequences near the end. Of note is a firefight through a casino indoor shopping strip, making use of an indoor monorail, which checks a lot of boxes for me.
It didn't take advantage of the setting as much as it could, as Horn and Winger fiddle around alleys and such just like they did on Earth. Sloane continues to tease a romance between Horn and the feisty assistant DA, but I don't think the series will last long enough for this to be a Sam/Diane thing.
No comments:
Post a Comment