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…
About the Author
Derek Haas co-wrote the screenplay 3:10 to Yuma, starring Russell Crowe and Christian Bale. He also co-wrote the film Wanted, starring James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman, and Angelina Jolie. This is his first novel. Derek lives in Los Angeles.
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
