Hell and Gone

Hell and Gone by Duane Swierczynski

Hell and Gone is the second installment of Duane Swierczynski’s Charlie Hardie trilogy. The first book of the series, Fun and Games was fairly entertaining, but nothing special. It was filled with plenty of action, but some of it was too over the top, too outlandish for me to buy. This trilogy’s supposed to be fiction, not science-fiction. Then, a couple of weeks after reading it, I realized who Charlie Hardie really is, and it dramatically improved what I thought of Fun and Games. If you see Charlie Hardie as Mickey Rourke’s character from Sin City, Swierczynski’s story become a few hundred percent better.

For the past few weeks, I had been anticipating October 31, the day Hell and Gone would download onto my Kindle. I was ready for some explosive action, more of what I got from Fun and Games. Hell and Gone exceeded all of my expectations. It was explosive; it was intense. But more than anything, it was good. Really good. I mean really, really good. A combination of the best aspects of Sin City, Saw, and Shawshank Redemption good.

The plot begins as Fun and Games ends. Hardie is injured, in transport, and in danger. And he’s wanted for murder of a Hollywood starlet. He has no idea where he is, no clue of how long it’s been since the final shootout of the first novel. What the author did from there is present everything to the reader is a wonderful way. The world building was incredible. We know the geography of Hardie’s new home, Site 7734. We know the feel of the place. The conditions are known. In short, Swierczynski described Site 7734 to us in a way that makes its construction familiar. More importantly, he made it feel real.

What this story is about is finding hope after it’s been stripped from you and you have no legitimate reason to maintain any. It is about not giving up. It is about finding the will to live, and doing so without losing your sense of self. Hell and Gone is about choosing life when there is no logical reason to keep going. It’s rather uplifting.

This is the third of Swierczynski’s novels that I’ve read. My biggest issue with the other two was that the point of view shifts often felt forced. They were jolting and very much disturbed my reading experience. No such worries in Hell and Gone. The shifts were near perfect. None of them felt extraneous. Instead, they were all part of the great storytelling. And the deeper into the novel you get, you realize how basic it really is at heart. It all boils down to one of the first things you learn in school: the five Ws.

Who is in charge and calling the shots?
What do They want?
When was Hardie brought to Site 7734?
Where exactly is Site 7734?
How is he going to escape?
Why are They doing this to him?

I highly recommend this book. Not just for the story itself, but also for the story construction, the way Swierczynski weaved it all together. If you like action, suspense, or just pure, old-fashioned fisticuffs, Hell and Gone is worth your time and money.

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