Fun & Games
By Duane Swierczynski
Paperback | Kindle
Mulholland Books
Release date: June 20, 2011

In Fun & Games, a former cop named Charlie Hardie, has taken a new job as a professional house sitter. His latest job in Los Angeles goes completely wrong when a movie actress finds refuge in the house that Hardie is protecting. The actress, Lane Madden, claims that a group of hit men are determined to kill her and Hardie finds himself thrown into the mix to protect her from them.

Fun & Games, the first book of the Charlie Hardie trilogy, was the one book that I was really looking forward to reading. I’m a fan of crime and thriller genres so this was a fantastic book to read. The book read like an action movie on steroids. Every chapter was a cliffhanger and I thought that there was no way Hardie could make it out of these situations alive. Boy was I wrong. Author Duane Swierczynski writes this novel the way I wish most action movies would come across: fast-paced, surprises left and right, and an ending that makes you excited for a sequel. The novel felt like a mash up of Home Alone meets Die Hard.