LOS ANGELES -- One of the best reading experiences in the United States this summer is the thriller "Absolute Rage," certainly a rage among applauding reviewers from Publishers Weekly to the Los Angeles Times. The 14th in a series of crime thrillers, it tells a well-informed tale about America's brutal union politics, a bloody Waco-like showdown in the hills of West Virginia and the tensions and contradictions in the country's system of criminal justice.

It also brings the reader back to the Vietnam War by assigning a choice role to a Vietnamese organized-crime gang. The clan's wily godfather, Tran, plays a sort of emotional godfather to the daughter of the novel's protagonists, a husband-and-wife team echoing Nick and Nora Charles of the 1930s, those witty literary crime-fighters whom Hollywood was to make famous based on the "Thin Man" detective novel.

Much like the Italian crime boss in Mario Puzo's epic novel "The Godfather" -- not to mention the classic '70s film -- Tran offers protagonists Marlene and Butch Karp an alternative course of justice when the established system falls short of the mark. His Vietnamese gang is no ragtag collection of street punks, but rather a well-disciplined outfit of veterans -- and sons of veterans -- of the war against America. When the federal authorities back off from direct confrontation, Tran's gang -- for a psychic measure of historic revenge as well as pecuniary gain -- is more than happy to make short work of Branch Davidian-style rednecks holed up in the West Virginia hills by quickly organizing and skillfully executing a slice-and-dice guerrilla attack.