One of the problems with age (among many others, as I'm sure some of you will agree) is that a person experiences "gray-outs" from time to time, periods of life where personal experiences just don't seem to be in synch with what is currently going on in the rest of the world. Arts and literature are particularly susceptible to gray-outs. I'll give you an example: when I first read Stephen King's The Shining, my son was about the same age as Danny Torrance, the clairvoyant child protagonist in that book. King's description of monstrous supernatural evil menacing the child—including his own father—spoke to me personally, to that little boy sleeping in the next room, and thus scared the shit out of me. Today, I could read that same book without fear, loving the words and the story without worry for the 22-year-old boy grinding his way through junior college in California. The ability to relate to that specific point of time in my life has passed by, which of course affects my feelings for that particular literary catalyst.

I had misgivings when I picked up Trouble Comes Back, Keith Snyder's third series offering featuring Jason Keltner, a twentysomething trying to make his mark in the Los Angeles music business. My own L.A. experience, still fondly remembered, is thirty-five years past. How can I relate to today's Gen X issues? The protagonists that speak to me are ex-Vietnam war vets moving quickly out of their forties into the next decade of their lives. If a good looking woman is below the age of 35, she's young enough to be my daughter rather than an object of lust. Despite these misgivings, and because my editor gave me another of those sticky notes that said, "Try this. Keith Snyder is supposed to give good smart-ass," I broke another of my personal rules—Never Start A Series At The End—and read the book. In a year that has already seen some excellent output in the mystery genre, Trouble Comes Back is one of the most pleasant surprises I've encountered.

The strength of the author's book is not in the story — although that part is certainly adequate. Keith Snyder's power is in his writing and his characterization. Any misgivings about not understanding or identifying with the three amigos he has created (Jason Keltner, Robert Goldstein, Martin Altamirano) were laid to rest with passages like the following, where Jason asks his recovering addict buddy what was the hardest part about giving up drugs:

  "When you go on drugs...  Whatever your emotional age was, stop
   the clock. Say you start using when you're fourteen, and you
   stop when you're twenty. You get to start the clock again right
   where you stopped it. It was eight-thirteen in the monrning when
   you stopped the clock? Well, guess what, bud, it's eight-thirteen
   now. Everybody else you know, they had that time to grow up, but
   while they were making progress and doing the work, you were off
   in a little suspended animation cocoon called 'I'm getting high'."

The relative age of the characters makes no difference in a book featuring that depth of insight. And throughout Trouble Comes Back, Keith Snyder pens sequence after sequence that advances three intensely emotional, intellectually solid young men to the pages before your eyes. Twentysomethings or not, these guys have values that are as powerful, and even politically correct, as you're likely to find in earlier genre tough-guy tropes—a sense for family preservation, protective tenderness for children, attentiveness to work ethic, and what is necessary to move forward. Coupled to this underlying core of decency is a keen eye for the times and a sharp sense of humor:

   "When their waiter came with their food, Robert complained that his
   wildebeest wasn't hairy enough. The waiter offered to exchange it for
   the hyena plate, which he promised was excellent and should be suitably
   hirsute, but Robert said he would make do and ordered another gazelle
   blood. The waiter gave Robert his phone number on the way out. Robert
   stuck it in his back pocket and apologized for being straight. The
   waiter said that wasn't a problem for him."

The author's storyline is not particularly intricate. Jason, Robert, and Martin remind me of Travis McGee and his buddy, Meyer — they just do their thing, and if they have an opportunity to help someone, and that opportunity might earn a few bucks, whatthehell. The theme of Trouble Comes Back deals with children caught in parental battles, the destructive nature of ambivalent love, and the value of friendship—all excellent, time-worn topics, well-told by a fresh new voice. From that perspective, there are no "gray areas" surrounding Keith Snyder's book. It's now on my Top Ten List for 1999. I've already found Number Two—Coffin's Got The Dead Guy On The Inside—but haven't managed to locate Show Control, the debut of Jason and friends. Another personal rule of mine: Never Read A Series Back To Front. Rules were meant to be broken.

—Reed Andrus