• Fiction. By Adrian McKinty. Scribner, $24.Grade: B+

Plot in a nutshell: Michael Forsythe, Denver author McKinty's popular peripatetic soldier of fortune/adventurer, enters his third novel working for a posh hotel in Peru as the head of security. Soon, an old enemy discovers him in Lima.

Bridget Callaghan had once been Michael's lover, but that has long since changed. (Bridget once sent five assassins to kill Michael in retaliation for his killing her husband.)

Bridget now runs the gang her dead husband once commanded, but she is unable to save her kidnapped daughter. If Michael will put his life on the line in Dublin and search for Siobhan Callaghan, her mother promises to leave Michael alone and wipe the slate clean.

Arriving in Dublin for the start of Bloomsday (June 16th, the day that James Joyce's Ulysses takes place), Michael is immediately sucked into a maelstrom of violence that ultimately leads to a final confrontation with the violent and beautiful Bridget.

Sample of Prose:

" 'I try not to hurt anybody. But sometimes, when needs arise, you have to step on a few toes,' I explained.

" 'Aren't you worried abut the consequences?' she said.

" 'What consequences?' I replied, genuinely puzzled.

" 'Hell,' she said.

I laughed.

" 'Of course. We're in Ireland. Hell. No. I don't think about hell. There is no hell. Hell is a place in Norway, halfway between Bergen and the Arctic Circle,' I said and popped a digestive biscuit in my mouth."

Pros: The book is written with a distinctive Irish lilt and is full of almost poetic language, even as it is peppered with enough violence to make Martin Scorsese wince.

Cons: Only one. The ending is as pat a plot device as you're likely to see and, thus, not worthy of the rest of the trilogy.

Final word: Reading any of McKinty's novels is a verbal treat, a contact high of an experience. The stories are thrilling, in a jump-aboard-and-enjoy way. Trust me when I say that the letdown of the ending doesn't in any way diminish the thrill of the rest of this book.