Heat 2

A Novel

By: Michael Mann, Meg Gardiner

Narrated by: Peter Giles

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 crime film—with an all-new story unfolding in the years before and after the iconic movie

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 (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 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 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 with the same extraordinary ambitions, scope, and rich characterizations as the epic film.

©2022 Michael Mann and Meg Gardiner (P)2022 HarperCollins Publishers

Great story and performance

I was initially drawn to buy this book out of pure curiosity, but was then enthralled by the story telling and performance. Without giving anything away, the novel is both prologue and epilogue to the motion picture, exploring the back stories of Detective Hanna, Neil McCauley, and Chris Sheherlis. A great escapist read and listen.

A Very Worthy Sequel

First of all, hats off to Peter Giles and his narration. I rarely, if ever, give a 5 star rating for narration, but Giles' Al Pacino impression was spot-on, and it made a tremendous value to the Audible. Before starting the Audible, I was concerned about the narration. Since the characters had already been created in the original movie, I was worried that having a new narrator would throw off the sequel. Peter Giles does a phenomenal job recreating Al Pacino's voice. I cannot adequately explain how great it was to hear Al Pacino speaking in this novel. Every time the character spoke, you hear Al Pacino and it felt like Al Pacino was narrating the book. Giles does a passable Robert DeNiro, but it was nowhere near as good as his Al Pacino. Plus, DeNiro. Val Kilmer doesn't have a very recognizable voice, so I don't even know if Giles was doing a Val Kilmer impression; regardless, it didn't matter or affect the novel.

This is one of the rare instances where, in my head, I had given this book a 3 star, a 4 star, and 5 star rating at various times throughout this novel. The novel dragged a little bit here and there throughout, but then the story would pick up again. When the story dragged, I thought it was a 3 star novel, but then the all of the different threads of the story would start intertwining, and I'd consider it a four star book. The ending of the novel was great and all of the different threads tied together nicely, pretty much as I would have liked the story to go, and the novel was fully satisfying, so I bumped it up to a 5 star rating. It may only be a 4 star novel, but the ending was so satisfying, that I had to give kudos to Michael Mann (and Meg Gardiner) for weaving a story that predated the movie Heat, was current with Heat, and went years beyond the movie. The usage of a new character that interlocked everyone together worked really well.

If you didn't watch the ordinal movie, then you'd never rate this a 5 star novel, and you may not even give it 4 stars. But for those of us who really liked the movie, and have seen it several times, I gave an extra star for the sheer accomplishment of writing a novel as a sequel to a very popular movie (and performing a great Audible along with it).

Stop waiting and get this!

I held off on getting this because I really liked the movie and usually I feel like follow ups or prequels don't do justice to the original. I should not have waited! If you're a fan of the original movie you're gonna love this. I can't believe how good it was and wish I didn't binge it so fast

Outstanding story telling

Literally could hear Al Pacino in this. The narrator was amazing. It brought the original movie back to life as a continuation. Storyline bounced constantly and kept you guessing. Hope they make a movie

All top notch

What an incredible story. I have to really hand it to Michael Mann. Not a sentence or line that isn’t planned to perfection. Like his movies; very well thought out and an intimate knowledge of his characters. I’m blown away by this book.
I’m standing and applauding.
Hats off and “cheers” to Mr. Mann. Thank you sir for this work of art.

Awesome!

I love the movie. This awesome “sequel” is too expansive to fit into a 2 hour movie. It reads to me like 3 seasons of a Netflix or Amazon series. I hope that’s what Michael Mann has in mind for this because it’s a great story! The narrator was great and really had Pacino’s voice down perfect!

Masterpiece

A dedicated character's story of driven people towards their own sense of survivability. Outstandingly Done!!!!

Riveting

I’ve never had a book draw me in as much as this book did. Better than watching a movie.

Gritty, fun, interesting, moving. Mann delivers.

Fantastic crime story. It was great to finally get the back story on the characters from Heat. This story was fun, interesting, suspenseful, and compelling. Mann really delivers here. And Peter Giles is perfect as a narrator.

As great as the film.

This was an epic novel that takes you into the world Michael Mann created in Heat and gloriously expands it. If you enjoyed the film you'll love this addition. The only issue I had was I wanted more Neil but how can you blame me for that. More than anything this is Chris's story and that's just fine. Now I just hope they make this a film.