Incinerator by Niall Leonard, a Mysterious Review.

Review: Finn Maguire's boxing gym is just barely paying for itself, but he's made it what it is and is satisfied. That is until he learns his partner borrowed money from a loan shark as his half of the start-up fund and has no way to pay it back, in Incinerator, the second book in this "Crusher" series by Niall Leonard.

Delroy had taught Finn how to box, and was there for him after his own father had been killed. Finn's father had set up a trust account in a Spanish bank, but he was reluctant to tap it, waiting for the proverbial rainy day when he'd need it. Well, he thinks, that day has come. He meets with the loan shark, agrees to a payment many times more than the amount due, and then arranges to withdraw the money only to learn that Nicky, his attorney, a woman who occasionally works out at the gym and that Finn has an attraction to, has cleaned out the account and fled the country. With no assets other than the gym, which is worth far less than he agreed to pay the loan shark, Finn has no choice but to work out another arrangement.

Incinerator is marketed as a young adult novel, yet it seems to be more of an adult novel — and a violent one at that — shoehorned into a young adult package. Finn's age isn't mentioned, but he's probably in his late teens, old enough to legally own a business but still young enough that he hasn't yet learned to drive. Finn himself is a contradiction: he's smart enough to take a struggling business and make it reasonably successful, but not so smart that he gives complete control of his finances to an attorney that he clearly wants to be closer to romantically yet barely knows. The storyline, which is a continuation of the first book in the series and — slight spoiler — doesn't end on the final page here, is not very demanding. There are a couple of side stories that help establish Finn's character, but the primary plot basically has him trying to figure out (a) if Nicky really has stolen his money, and if not, where is she; and (b) how can he negotiate his way out of an illegal business deal. The answer to (a) is revealed in the present book; the answer to (b) is not, and likely the subject of the next. Despite coming in at over 350 pages, Incinerator really isn't all that long — the font-size is really more appropriate for a large print book than this one — moves along briskly and is probably best suited for those that read the first in the series, Crusher and are willing to read whatever follows.

Incinerator

A Crusher Novel by Niall Leonard