I just finished Panic Attack and I must say, it is skillfully-crafted. Jason has mastered the difficult technique of juggling alternating and overlapping narration among six characters. The book has a lot in common with his previous effort, The Follower, in the alternating perspective, but in that book it was easier in that there were only two main characters to alternate between.
The book is definitely noir as all the characters seemed doomed from the beginning and you wonder who will be left standing at the end. He keeps the action moving and there are no missteps and you'll find it hard to put down. I usually read before I go to bed, but with Jason's books, I find that I'm wide awake staring at the ceiling when it's time to turn the light out and go to sleep.
One criticism I had of the book is that Jason seems to have no interest in writing sympathetic characters and sometimes you find you're really not interested in knowing what happens to them. But the one thing that keeps me reading is knowing that because it's a Jason Starr novel, they're going to make a train wreck of their lives.
Jeff
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