WAKING WITH ENEMIES

Multifaceted assassin Gideon returns to tangle with his enemies and lovers in Dickey’s highly sexed latest (Sleeping with Strangers, 2007, etc.).

There are worse things for a guy than being stuck in a fancy London hotel room with two beautiful women he hardly knows, but in spite of his Bond-like way with the ladies, contract killer Gideon has much on his mind. Everyone, it seems, wants to bed him or kill him. Sometimes both. Pursued by a broken-nosed rival hitman (Bruno) who followed him from America, he is also preoccupied with Arizona, the gorgeous con artist who broke his heart and might now be after his neck. She offers her help, but can he trust her? And then there is unfinished business with his mother Thelma, the prostitute living in England whose questionable parenting techniques he blames for turning him into the man he is today. Far friendlier is Lola Mack, the curvy wannabe actress he meets on his flight over, who turns to Gideon after her London-dwelling boyfriend spurns her, and the elegant Mrs. Jones, a mystery woman on the run from a bad marriage and family tragedy. Those two join him in his room and the trio exhaustively explores erotic possibilities, with Gideon trying to keep his job secret from his new playmates. Needless to say, it gets more complicated and bloodier, with our hero trying to save his skin, honor his obligations and protect those who suddenly seem to matter most to him. He is eventually forced into a showdown with Bruno that puts him on the trail of the party who placed the hit on him. With stops in Amsterdam and Detroit, Dickey’s latest meanders a bit in the earlier scenes, but it gains momentum as plot points introduced in the previous book come together.

Nearly as violent as it is explicit—a pulpy thriller boasting a free-love message.