by David Baldacci, Macmillan, HK$120
David Baldacci seems to have a new book out every week. I imagine that no sooner does he type 'The End' at the bottom of one thriller than he writes 'Chapter 1' at the top of the next. Stone Cold tells the story of a heist gone wrong. Annabelle Conroy is 36, blonde and (it almost goes without saying) has long legs. Which is just as well because she is on the run, having conned a psychopath named Jerry Bagger out of US$40 million - US$4.78 in today's economic climate. Luckily, Conroy knows The Camel Club, now stars of four Baldacci novels: computer genius Milton Farb; ordinary genius Reuben Rhodes; Library of Congress genius Caleb Shaw; and genius genius Oliver Stone (the last one is a pseudonym, by the way). Just when Annabelle thinks she has escaped one lunatic up pops Harry Finn, who makes Bagger look as threatening as Jerry Seinfeld. Baldacci not only writes in a hurry, his writing hurries too. He is particularly good at macho lines like: 'That's the home of the President, the most powerful son of a bitch in the world.' George W. had better beware, however. 'Once he's out of office, he's nothing. But I'm still Jerry Bagger.' Consider yourself told.