Adam Plantinga's debut novel, THE ASCENT, was a nonstop adrenaline rush. It followed a former cop and others through increasingly violent and chaotic scenes as they attempt to escape a maximum-security prison in the midst of a bloody riot.

The end definitely left questions in terms of what would be next for the protagonist, Kurt Argento. Having lost his career, from which he derived much of his identity, and mourning the recent loss of his wife, it wasn't clear what his future would be like, despite the heroism he demonstrated at that notorious prison.

Now those questions are answered in HARD TOWN. Argento, formerly from Detroit, has relocated to a small town in Arizona, where he's house sitting for a friend and picking up odd jobs. People talk in small towns, though, and his reputation --- following the big prison story a year earlier --- has spread.

"HARD TOWN ventures deep into unforgiving desert landscapes and the darkest corners of the American drug trade. Argento's passion for revenge fuels him, for better or for worse."

So when a young mother, Kristin Reed, approaches Argento at the town's lone diner, her interest isn't merely casual. Her husband, Warren, has disappeared in the nearby town of Fenton, and she's convinced that something shady is going on. Given Argento's reputation, she's hoping that he might be able to figure out what happened to Warren.

Argento, who hasn't exactly been champing at the bit to get back in the business, is at first reluctant to get involved. But eventually he decides to bring his dog, Hudson, and meet the woman in Fenton at the time she has suggested. What he encounters there is deeply unsettling. Kristin and her young son, Ethan, are nowhere to be found, and neither is Warren. The most visible presence in the town are the nine extremely well-equipped members of the Fenton Public Safety Department.

Argento notices immediately that these guys don't act like typical cops; they don't even seem to know some of the basic tenets of police work. He suspects they might be ex-military, probably special forces, and they appear to be in town to offer a level of protection that is seriously out of whack with most normal police departments. Fenton only has a thousand residents, so this level of policing seems excessive. Making things even more eerie, Argento learns that Warren had stayed in the same small hotel where he'd been planning to get a room. The room has been completely remodeled, even though nothing else in the somewhat shabby inn has. Is someone trying to cover up a crime scene?

When Argento discovers that there is a massive, fortress-like mansion on the outskirts of town, guarded by sentries with guns, he is sure all of this is connected. But what kind of danger has he walked into?

Like THE ASCENT, readers who pick up HARD TOWN should be prepared for staggering levels of violence. It lacks the nonstop adrenaline hits of its predecessor, but that's absolutely fine; it probably wouldn't be realistic for a single character (not to mention the author who created him) to keep up that relentless pace. What it has instead is a more nuanced examination of Argento, in which we get to see him solving problems in a variety of ways and with sometimes astonishing bravery and ingenuity. Argento is a man who is deeply scarred, both emotionally and physically, a condition that only grows more intense when, midway through the novel, he suffers yet another devastating loss.

HARD TOWN ventures deep into unforgiving desert landscapes and the darkest corners of the American drug trade. Argento's passion for revenge fuels him, for better or for worse.