Heat 2 - by Michael Mann & Meg Gardiner (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller!

Michael Mann, four-time-Oscar-nominated writer-director of The Last of the Mohicans, The Insider, Ali, Miami Vice, Collateral, and Heat teams up with Edgar Award-winning author Meg Gardiner to deliver Mann's first novel, an explosive return to the universe and characters of his classic heist film--with an all-new story unfolding in the years before and after the iconic movie.

"A hard-boiled, cinematic read that moves as fast as a well-planned heist." --Esquire

One day after the end of Heat, Chris Shiherlis (Val Kilmer) is holed up in Koreatown, wounded, half delirious, and desperately trying to escape LA. Hunting him is LAPD detective Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino). Hours earlier, Hanna killed Shiherlis's brother in arms Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro) in a gunfight under the strobe lights at the foot of an LAX runway. Now Hanna's determined to capture or kill Shiherlis, the last survivor of McCauley's crew, before he ghosts out of the city in this suspense thriller.

In a tense prequel story set in 1988, seven years earlier, McCauley, Shiherlis, and their highline crew are taking scores on the West Coast, the US-Mexican border, and now in Chicago. Driven, daring, they're pulling in money and living vivid lives. And Chicago homicide detective Vincent Hanna--a man unreconciled with his history--is following his calling, the pursuit of armed and dangerous men into the dark and wild places, hunting an ultraviolent gang of home invaders.

Meanwhile, the fallout from McCauley's scores and Hanna's pursuit cause unexpected repercussions in a parallel, dual timeline narrative driving through the years following Heat.

Heat 2 projects its dimensional and richly drawn men and women into whole new worlds--from the inner sanctums of rival crime syndicates in a South American free-trade zone to transnational criminal enterprises in Southeast Asia. The novel brings you intimately into these lives. In Michael Mann's Heat universe, they will confront new adversaries in lethal circumstances beyond all boundaries.

Heat 2 is engrossing, moving, and tragic--a masterpiece of crime fiction and a must-read action thriller with the same extraordinary ambitions, scope, and rich characterizations as the epic film.

Review Quotes

"Heat 2 is just dynamite." - Associated Press

"Mann's brooding moments of sublime isolation are there in abundance, combined with Gardiner's deft touch for modern thrillers. The result is an intensely satisfying crime story." - Crimereads

"A genuinely exhilarating expansion of the movie's world, complete . . . some truly jaw-dropping, bullet-filled set pieces." - Rolling Stone

"Heat 2 is a must for fans of the film." - USA Today

"Propulsive." - Sam Sifton, New York Times

"The best novel of 2022 (or any other year) . . . . Mann orders you to see what he sees and, if you've watched any of his movies, the connection between his words and his signature filmmaking is instant. If you haven't watched any of his movies, you'll end up wanting to." - SF Gate

"This audacious, powerhouse of a novel brings to the page everything the classic crime film Heat brought to the screen. . . Drawn by Mann and Gardiner with psychological and emotional gravity, the characters live their lives of crime and violence on the edge of a razor. The plot and the set-pieces of shootouts, heists, and crime-scene investigation are nails. The characters' motives are obsessive. The details of police work and criminal enterprise, precise and revealing. The banter is quick and smart and memorable. And the metaphors and descriptions conjure up vivid, original images worthy of Mann's best big movies." - Eric Rickstad, New York Times bestselling author

"Heat 2 is an action-packed epic reviving beloved characters from a globally celebrated film. It is also a moving meditation on commitment--the rewards and the costs of giving your all. Michael Mann and Meg Gardiner have deepened the legacy of Heat--and given us one hell of a page-turner. A stunning, mammoth achievement." - Bill Beverly, author of Dodgers

"Heat 2 is a classic of the crime genre . . . Realism permeates Mann's world, and the world he created in Heat was rich enough for the writer-director to decide that he needed to expand the universe further. . . . It dives deeper into the rich criminal underworld and complicated lives of his thieves and cops. . . . If you're a fan of the crime genre, you can only hope we get more from [Mann] and his crew soon." - The Spectator World

"Told in a style as propulsive and cinematic as the film, Heat 2 is an exciting and engrossing tale." - AV Club

"The novel glistens with the cool Mann became famous for in his hip, shiny TV series "Miami Vice," the great, claustrophobic film "Collateral," and, of course, "Heat" . . . . I can't wait to experience the next installment." - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"[An] action-packed thriller." - Denver Post

"This will be a must for fans of the movie, but the novel stands on its own too, as an epic L.A. crime feast." - Vanessa Cronin, Amazon Editor

"Michael Mann's Heat is one of my all-time favorite movies. Michael Mann and Meg Gardiner's Heat 2 is now one of my favorite suspense novels. The voice of this book is a brilliant melding of the way we talk and the way we think. I must confess I did put the novel down occasionally, but only because I didn't want it to end. I'm already quoting lines from Heat 2 to my writer friends (shamelessly saying the lines are mine)." - James Patterson

"Prepare for an epic journey of the seven years before the bank heist that would change all of their lives and the events that unfold afterward, bringing in a new cast of riveting characters. . . The world of international drug cartels and crime syndicates has never been so gripping. Heat was a cinematic spectacle, and this sequel manages to create the same immersive experience in written form." - Library Journal (starred review)

"Heat 2 gives us an exciting, emotionally rich thriller, with just as much style and panache as Michael Mann's original classic heist movie. I loved it." - Adrian McKinty, #1 international bestselling author

"Awesome! This novel is a stunning achievement in character study, narrative form and action. I am in awe. A stunning page-turner every bit as masterful as the original movie. Easily one of the finest novels of the year!" - Steve Cavanagh, #1 international bestselling author

"There is something kind of wonderful about making the prequel/sequel a novel rather than a film... Mann and Gardiner have produced an excellent thriller. . . Heat 2 goes full The Godfather Part II." - Austin Chronicle

"Mann's stunning prequel/sequel to his 1995 classic. . . an intoxicatingly relentless gem. . . a novel to be devoured more than once." - The Film Stage

"Heat 2 tees up intricately choreographed set pieces. . . that play in the mind's eye and pump the accelerator with mounting, marauding excitement, marvels of controlled chaos." - Air Mail

"For those of you who can't get enough of his 1995 film Heat, widely and reasonably regarded as his masterpiece, well, now there's Heat 2, a gritty, vivid, 468-page second helping that delivers the goods and also goes to surprising new places." - Museum of Moving Images

"FANTASTIC!... It's incredible! Absolutely LOVED IT!" - Jack Carr

"Heat 2 is a fascinating book . . . [that] brings Michael Mann's exacting vision, improbably, to the page." - GQ

"Heat 2 is a brilliant and riveting novel with rich and real characters and powerhouse storytelling that represents one of the most authentic evocations of criminals and the cops who hunt them down that I've ever read. The first novel from Michael Mann (and Meg Gardiner) is a tour de force that works as a standalone but also honors, deepens, and expands Mann's iconic film by placing all the key characters in an intricately detailed and emotionally involving new story that takes place before and after Heat." - Don Winslow

"Riveting. . . . The best thing about this innovative tale is the way the fully fleshed human stories support and even transcend the often-breathtaking action." - Booklist [starred review]

"A hard-boiled, cinematic read that moves as fast as a well-planned heist. If you were obsessed with Heat, you'll want Heat 2 to last." - Esquire

"Mann's long relationship with his central protagonists, and fondness for research, are evident on almost every page of this propulsive universe-expansion. . . . Reading this novel, and the cliffhanger ending, definitely leaves you wanting another book set in the same world." - Entertainment Weekly

"An expansive crime novel that feels of a piece with Mann's filmography, from its hypercompetent, ambitious characters to the richly detailed underworlds they operate in." - Vulture

"Heat 2 moves at a near breakneck pace, sweeping us along like an addictive film. The result is an action-packed page-turner that fully engulfs us in the moody, bloody, romantic worlds Mann creates in his films." - Slash Film