I initially read CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE only because its author, Owen Laukkanen, is to be part of a panel of authors I will be seeing at a book festival later this month. Turns out, though, this book is very good; I enjoyed it so much it made me put off doing things, such as sleeping, in favor of reading. I even suspect that Laukkanen kept the book's chapters short so that his readers could convince themselves they could read just one more little chapter.

Seriously, Laukkanen's two- and three-page chapters added to the feeling that so much was happening in a really short time. A regular guy turned bank robber to preserve his family's swank lifestyle, then turned murderer, and finally turned psycho. He is pursued first by Carla Windermere of the FBI. Then, by coincidence, Kirk Stevens, a state investigator, gets involved. Apparently, the same two characters are also partners in an earlier book, THE PROFESSIONALS.

But, although CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE is the second book in a series, it can be read as a standalone (one sign of good writing). I had no trouble. I did, however, wish I had read the first in this series simply because I enjoyed the second so much.