Mike Tucker is a professional art dealer who moonlights as a professional thief. Through Clitus Felton, an ex-thief who runs a book store, Tucker receives offers to ply his second trade, but he picks and chooses which capers he becomes involved in. In "Surrounded" Felton puts him in touch with Frank Meyers. Meyers is looking to assemble a crew to rob a bank located in an exclusive shopping mall near Santa Monica, California. Along with safecracker Edgar Bates they plan to knock off the bank and a jewelry store while the mall is closed. After subduing the guards Tucker learns that Meyers wanted more than money from this heist. His actions bring the police, and now Tucker must figure out how to get them (and the money) out of the surrounded mall.

My Rating = B -

A quick and enjoyable read, consistently interesting, and with more plot twists than "Blood Risk".

Book Information

"Surrounded" is the second of five books that Dean Koontz published under the pseudonym "Brian Coffey". It is one of the harder titles to locate and tends to be very expensive. Unfortunately, most of the copies I see listed for sale are ex-library editions. "Surrounded" was the second of three novels to feature Mike Tucker as the protagonist, preceded by "Blood Risk" in 1973 and concluding with "The Wall of Masks" in 1975. It was never published in paperback in the United States.

American First Edition Information

You have the American first edition if there is a $5.95 price on the inside front of the dustjacket and if it states "First Printing" on the copyright page.