A Silver Bear Thriller
In stores now!
Columbus has retired. Or so he thinks. He and his lover, Risina, a mysterious rare-book dealer, have fled to a tiny Italian coastal village where no one knows their names. And yet Columbus has trouble letting go.
His paranoia is justified when one day, he notices a suspicious man following him, and within days, he's back in Chicago trying to figure out why his old fence has been kidnapped and maybe even killed. The ransom note left behind demands Columbus by name.
The Silver Bear must now sever this last link with his dark past if he and Risina are to ever have hope at a new life. Yet Risinia seems to show a remarkable knack for the kill herself…and perhaps there won't be a chance for turning back.
Praise for Dark Men
“The assassin who calls himself Columbus and plies his trade in a devastatingly cool series by Derek Haas is back. This preening narcissist is also a consummate craftsman, and it’s a pleasure to watch him go up against an adversary with a modus operandi even more diabolical than his own.” - The New York Times
“Haas's solid third Silver Bear thriller... poetic prose helps propel the plot... Haas keeps readers guessing throughout.” - Publisher's Weekly
“Haas brings his cold, canny professional hit man back in this cold, canny thriller. Intricate and fascinating. Heartless Columbus offers cold comfort on dark nights.” - Kirkus Reviews
“When push comes to shove, the bullets don’t just fly. They find their targets.” - New Jersey Star Ledger
“It’s the perfect choice for fans of pulp fiction. A pulpy gem. Haas’ kinetic prose moves this fast-paced story right along and makes it the escapist fun to while away a holiday afternoon.” - The Hollywood Reporter
A Silver Bear Thriller
He told you not to like him. To get close to Columbus, the Silver Bear, means death. Exactly whose death remains to be determined in this highly anticipated new thriller. Recouping in Europe after losing his fence and best friend during his mission to assassinate his father, Columbus now finds his reverie interrupted by multiple assassins searching for the elusive Silver Bear. As Columbus eliminates each killer, more and more appear — a hydra effect he can only eliminate by finding the origin of the hit, a source connected to his past. Racing across the globe, as both hunter and hunted, Columbus' travels take him to Italy, where he meets a mysterious woman named Risina. A woman with her own secret past, she may be Columbus' only hope of salvation.
Barry Award Nomination
COLUMBUS has been nominated for a 2010 Barry Award for Best Thriller. Derek will be attending "Bouchercon by the Bay" in October where the award will be announced.
Praise for Columbus
“A fine and riveting pick for mystery-thriller readers.” - Midwest Book Review
“Like Jeff Lindsay’s Dexter, Columbus is a thoroughly likable villain. He operates on the wrong side of the law, with his own moral code and his own unique sense of compassion. It’s impossible not to like the guy, even though he explicitly and repeatedly tells us not to, just as it’s impossible not to like the novel itself. Haas, a screenwriter (3:10 to Yuma), is a very good storyteller, and he nails the first-person, engagingly offhand narration.” - David Pitt, Booklist
“Haas’ Columbus, who narrates his own story, marks another step in the evolution of pop culture’s killers.” - Tom Maurstad, Dallas Morning News
“Columbus is absolutely one of the best reads I’ve had this year. …Haas is a guy whose work I’ll pick up any time he publishes. He’s that strong a writer, and Columbus is that strong a book.” - Drew McWeeny, HitFix.com
“Columbus is just the latest factor in Haas’ master plan: to craft characters with a wretchedness so refined, so incorrigible and so sincere that it’s kind of impossible not to fall for them.” - S.T. VanAirsdale, Las Vegas Weekly
“This is a straight-out thriller that moves at an arrow’s pace, with only spare attempts at fishing for the heart of the reader. Haas’ prose is blunt and forceful, crudely elegant in its own beautiful way. It seems that every time he’s about to wander into a lull in the action or a moment of sappy reflection, a bullet smashes into someone’s face. Grade: A.” - Pete Kotz, True Crime Report
The debut novel from Derek Haas.
He wants you to know him, maybe even admire him, but only for his excellence in his craft. Perhaps he was even born for it. “A natural killer,” his mentor — a middleman named Vespucci — said he was. He proved it with his first professional hit: a Fifth Circuit Court judge in Boston, executed with a sheet of Saran Wrap in the stairwell of her own courthouse. He's proved his merit often, usually with a Glock semiautomatic, but he's improvised too, with his bare hands, the heel of a shoe, knives, even a sewing machine. He is the consummate assassin, at the top of his form, immune to the psychological strains of his chosen profession. He is what the Russians call a Silver Bear.
He calls himself Columbus. Not that his real name meant much to him anyway. He never knew his father or his mother, a prostitute who became dangerously involved back in the seventies with an earnest young congressman named Abe Mann, then a rising star in the Democratic Party…
The magnetic Abe Mann has since become Speaker of the House. He is currently running for the Democratic nomination in an exhausting presidential campaign, weaving his way across the country. Columbus is not far behind. But as the Silver Bear closes in on perhaps his most important mark, the world he has always ruled begins to crumble around him…
Praise for the Silver Bear
“Tight, swift debut thriller... reminiscent of The Manchurian Candidate. By telling the story from the assassin's point of view, Haas layers on novelistic texture. In chilling interior passages echoing The Day of the Jackal, the ‘bear’ explicates the cold-blooded methods that make him a top killer. All the while, Haas stokes sympathy for his anti-hero. Lean work, with every word counting and adding up to more than most authors land in twice the space.” - KIRKUS REVIEWS, STARRED REVIEW
“Sure to be the hit of the summer, The Silver Bear is the debut novel from 3:10 to Yuma co-screenwriter Derek Haas. This first-person narrative of a professional hit man examines the psychological intrigue of the chase and the cold calculations involved in hunting a human being, even if the prey is... your father.” - LA Confidential Magazine
“Haas (cowriter of the screenplay 3:10 to Yuma) introduces readers to a new killer-for-hire in his character Columbus, an orphan who never knew his parents. When Columbus is hired to bump off the front runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, the underworld that was his adoptive home turns against him, and he must use all his skills as a consummate assassin to survive the assignment. Well written, fast-paced, and engaging, this debut thriller seamlessly interweaves scenes from the past with the present to give a thrilling account of a professional killer at his peak, what the Russians call a ‘Silver Bear.’ The cross-country hunt is a fast read; fans of James Patterson and Jeffrey Deaver will enjoy. Recommended for public libraries.” - Library Journal
“Derek Haas has produced a short, sharp, electric shock of a book...” - Mike Ripley, Shots Ezine
“I found it a thrilling page-turner - a cross between the Jason Bourne movies and the classic assassin film Leon. Read it before it turns into a movie to.” - In Company magazine, Jenni Falconer
“A moody, gloomy but curiously gripping tale.” - Literary Review
“I can't give anything away about this brilliant, intense portrait of a professional hit man. Better that you know nothing before you read, except that Derek Haas's hero is called Columbus, a consummate assassin. Hired to murder an improbable victim, his intrinsic alienation sees him seemingly proceeding towards his own death, the assignment hastening the inevitable. The balance and rhythm of Haas's first novel are exemplary as Columbus struggles to stay ahead of the Big Clock to stop from being caught in its machinery. A Hollywood screenwriter, Haas knows about cinematic-style story construction, cliffhangers and urgent narrative pace. This is the kind of novel that leaves you uncomfortably uncertain of what you feel and whether it is proper to identify with Haas's protagonist.” - Graeme Blundell, The Australian
“A concept so high that it might give publishers and readers a nosebleed. ...beautifully crafted.” - Dick Adler, Barnes & Noble Reviews
For Signed Books
If you would like Derek Haas to sign a book, please call or email Chevalier Books in Los Angeles and they will arrange for an autograph and ship books out wherever you want.
Chevalier's Books
126 N. Larchmont Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA, 90004
323-465-1334
About the Author
DEREK HAAS is the author of THE SILVER BEAR, COLUMBUS, and DARK MEN. Derek also co-wrote the screenplays for 3:10 TO YUMA, WANTED, and THE DOUBLE. He is the creator and editor of popcornfiction.com. Derek lives in Los Angeles.