THE LONG WAY HOME

Having saved the Secretary of Homeland Security from a terrorist plot (The Last Thing I Remember, 2009), amnesiac teenage karate stud Charlie West heads home to find out what’s happened with the last year of his life. Even though the cops think he murdered his best friend, and even though the terrorists seem to think he’s one of them, Charlie clings desperately to the hope that he is one of the “good guys.” A knife fight and a motorcycle chase later (the descriptions of which give “blow-by-blow” a whole new slow-motion meaning), Charlie is ensconced in a hideout with his buddies and his girlfriend 100 percent behind him. As in the first volume of the Homelanders series, Klavan dissipates what little tension he manages to generate with lengthy flashbacks—including the ludicrous first-person, second-hand recounting of his romance with Beth, which he cannot remember. Skewed to an audience reading from the right side of the religio-political spectrum, it displays scant tolerance for nonbelievers. Even those comfortable with this viewpoint may well find themselves yawning as Charlie sludges on in his quest—suspended, of course, until the next book. (Thriller. 12 & up)