Fri. Mar 29th, 2024


Once again, Mann unpacks the criminal underworld, examining how connections influence behavior on both sides of the law. This is not just a story of men who are willing to leave everything behind if they feel the heat around the corner, it’s about how these same men have an almost animalistic sense of one another, able to predict behavior and see through bullshit in ways most people cannot. It can be overwhelming, and hinges on a new character that connects its timelines in a way that might be too much for some people’s suspension of disbelief, but there’s such energy and passion in Mann’s and Gardiner’s storytelling that the novel’s structural flaws and contrivances can be forgiven.

The first few pages of Heat 2 serve as a recap of the film, which I highly recommend revisiting before reading, not only because it’s a masterpiece but because it will enhance your understanding of these characters before returning to them. At the end of “Heat,” most of the crew of Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro) was dead. Neil himself was shot by Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino), holding the detective’s hand as his life left his body. The only real person to escape the action of “Heat” was Chris Shiherlis (Val Kilmer), and one of the timelines of Heat 2 centers Chris as he first tries to escape Los Angeles and later gets into trouble in Paraguay. The other goes back in time, visiting Chicago in 1988, where Hanna investigates a series of horrific home invasions that, believe it or not, have a tie to McCauley & Shiherlis, who are in the Windy City on a job of their own, and when Chris first meets and woos Charlene (Ashley Judd).

The flashback timeline of Heat 2 hums with vicious intensity. Mann and Gardiner describe the home invasions with terrifying detail and feel like they’re embracing Pacino’s take on Hanna. (He encounters one of the home invaders with a “Surprise, motherf**kers!” and one can picture mid-‘90s Pacino shouting the line.) The Hanna of “Heat” is a little world-wearier than this one, meaning a character who was already intense is even more so in flashback. One of the biggest problems of an adaptation of this novel, which Mann reportedly wants to make, will be finding a modern actor with that ‘80s Pacino fearlessness.

By Dave Jenks

Dave Jenks is an American novelist and Veteran of the United States Marine Corps. Between those careers, he’s worked as a deckhand, commercial fisherman, divemaster, taxi driver, construction manager, and over the road truck driver, among many other things. He now lives on a sea island, in the South Carolina Lowcountry, with his wife and youngest daughter. They also have three grown children, five grand children, three dogs and a whole flock of parakeets. Stinnett grew up in Melbourne, Florida and has also lived in the Florida Keys, the Bahamas, and Cozumel, Mexico. His next dream is to one day visit and dive Cuba.