‘Prisoner’ takes no prisoners in sci-fi thriller

Dennis Green's new book opens with a bang when Trav Becker catches a bleeding man in his arms. The man gasps, 'They're coming!” He repeats the warning and dies.

Trav Becker looks at the man and knows everything about him - he's 32, single, a police detective, he broke an elbow when he was 8 years old - because Becker is 'staring at my own dead body.”

And so we're off and running in 'Prisoner” (Mbedzi Publishing, 330 pages, $16.95), the second installment in Green's 'Traveler Chronicles.” The fast-paced action doesn't stop until a wrenching climax that sets up Green's third and final book in the series, 'Hunter.”

In this outing, Green quickly orients the readers to the world of parallel realities traversed by Becker. Backgrounding a sequel is always tricky for an author. You want enough detail so readers new to your world know what's going on, but you don't want to repeat large swathes of the previous book. Green gets it just right, parceling out the background as he goes.

Green has Becker explain parallel realities by saying it's happens when you're searching for those misplaced car keys or a book.

'You look everywhere and can't find it,” Green writes. 'Then all of a sudden, there it is. In a place you could have sworn you already searched. Or even more unnerving, maybe you were staring right at it, but for some reason, didn't see it. Congratulations. You just experienced a shift from one parallel reality to another.”

Later in the novel, just when you need it, Becker adds: 'If you're confused hearing about it, imagine what it was like to live it.”

The plot of 'Prisoner” involves the kidnapping of two girls, ages 8 and 12, an FBI profiler with a hidden agenda, and the reappearance of Sam, a particle physicist, and Morgan Foster, an alluring psychic. (Actually, several versions of the latter two.) We have warring camps, shootouts and the looming end of life on Earth as we know it.

The writing in this sci-fi thriller is even better and more self-assured than in the first 'Traveler,” which was very good. Green has a solid ear for dialogue and even when the explanations approach convoluted, he gives his reader breathing room with a well-placed wise crack or two.

Green tosses in entertaining pop culture and musical references. He knows how to end a chapter. And he salts the action with descriptive writing that rewards readers: 'The house was that light green (that) was all the rage for about eighteen months in the early Sixties, preserved forever by those owners who had made the unfortunate choice of permanent siding.”

'Prisoner” may be a little late for beach reading, but it's just right for a night before the fire. If you could just find those misplaced matches.