Hell & Gone by Duane Swierczynski - this is book 2 of the Charlie Hardie trilogy. In book 1, [b:Fun and Games|9583669|Fun and Games|Duane Swierczynski|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1297867711s/9583669.jpg|14470611], he stumbled across The Accident People, who specialize in "accidents" happening to folks that powerful people want to get rid of. He tried to protect a B level actress, but failed in the end. The ending of that book was a bloodbath, as Charlie thwarted another killing attempt, only to take a shot to the head.

Book 2 opens with Charlie getting carted away and then kidnapped by the very people he has been trying to destroy. And who have been trying to kill him. He is taken to some kind of prison facility and there must learn a whole new set of rules, as both guard and prisoner. He vows to escape and make The Industry pay.

This was a very strange book, especially after the relatively straight forward thriller that was Fun & Games. Charlie spends the first third of the book in a nearly comatose state, getting carted around, beat up, shot up, electrocuted, drugged, and other bodily calamities. It is actually pretty painful to read, both with what is being done to him and what he is forced to witness being done to others. He uncovers some remarkable allies in this underground hellhole but ends up making a deal with the devil. Again.

I am not sure just how much I liked this one. Like I said, for at least the first third, not really much happened. Hardie is constantly dragged around, and while there is a little story going on outside of his trials and tribulations, even that doesn't have much going on. The middle third, where he discovers what he is up against, is really bizarre, a sort of Skinner Box experiment gone crazy, much like the infamous experiment in the 60s where people were told to turn up the juice on a subject, no matter how much they screamed, just to see how far they would go. And it was truly creepy how far most people would go when told to do it by an authority figure.

But even the ending, which, of course, explodes in a paroxysm of violence, is strangely unsatisfying. I'm not sure if it is because it is the middle book of a trilogy, but it just seemed to be a way through the story and not a story in and of itself. I'm hoping for better in the finale, [b:Point and Shoot|11645093|Point and Shoot|Duane Swierczynski|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1327987236s/11645093.jpg|16589205], which they excerpt a little of the beginning. That's due out this month.