The evidence is stacked against her, "proving" she murdered Neil Greene, a powerful bureaucrat, but more importantly, a high level Freemason that Blank has worked with before. So Blank is off and running to his old contacts in the Information Underground in an attempt to clear Mina's name. Lucky for him, he's shed the Ronald Reagan haircut and, due to an unfortunate accident involving the Necronomicon at the bookshop, half of his face is covered by a giant bandage. This will come in handy since most of the organizations who utilized his services didn't take kindly to his dropping off the grid. In fact, more than a few of them are trying to kill him, which doesn't bode well.
As Blank begins searching out old contacts he thinks he can trust, such as Oana Constantinescu of V.E.N.U.S. (Mina used to be a member), he runs into the head of the Russian Mob, Vassily "The Whale" Zhukovsky, recently escaped from prison and who naturally is trying to kill him... or at least the alias Vassily knows him by. As Blank fights to elude certain death at every turn, he'll need the help of many allies such as Bigfoot, the Mothman (or at least a version of him), an MIB known as VC or Victor Charlie and even a failed starlet named Heather who smiles constantly as she strives to maintain the teachings of the Rosicrusophists. Throw in some dealings with a bunch of Satanists, from three different splinter groups, mind you, a run-in with the Lizard People, an insane and power-hungry action movie star, potential deadly threats from the Anas (the anorexic antithesis group to V.E.N.U.S.), and a shootout or two, and you are pretty much looking at a week in the life of Robert Blank.
Once again, Justin Robinson manages to craft a hilarious tale involving not only copious references to pop culture and general nerdy goodness, but enough action and mystery to keep you on your toes, if only in trying to keep his secret society affiliations and various aliases straight! I love the way Robinson weaves a story and his books are a lot of fun. I am glad to see this is the second in a series, because Blank and Mina are a great couple and their misadventures never fail to thrill. Keep 'em coming Justin! For a taste, check out the link below to read one of Justin's short stories in the Blank universe.
