Author Harry Hunsicker spins tales
of Dallas that don’t fit the glitzy image advocated by the Chamber of Commerce.
His Dallas is one of dope dens, backstabbing in the barrios as well as city
hall, a river and a roadway system that was deliberately constructed to divide
the rich and poor, where the ends justify the means in you are on the winning
side of the deal. Where the streets are paved with broken dreams amidst the cracked
asphalt and where babies are born with no hope and no chance to get out. This view
was part of the backbone of his very good Lee Henry Oswald Mystery Series (begin
with Still
River) and is also present in the Jon Cantrell Thriller Series.
The second book in the series, Shadow Boys, picks up a few months
after, The Contractors and leads readers on a history lesson while dealing
with a violence fueled here and now though not all of the violence comes by way
a weapon.
When he isn’t messing with the
tourists at the Grassy Knoll by tossing around empty rifle cartridges, Jon
Cantrell works for a law firm out of Washington, D. C. He is paid well to
discreetly handle situations that arise when government shipments of important
cargo are not returned or fall into the wrong hands. While the law firm prefers
that he not moonlight, in this case, his boss has granted Jon Cantrell
permission to meet with someone that they would like to have a relationship with
going forward.
That someone is Deputy Chief Raul
Delgado of the Dallas Police Department who is a rising star in the DPD despite,
or maybe inspite, of his violent background. The movers and shakers have begun
grooming Delgado and offering advice as they believe that he is a person who
someday might be sitting in the governor’s mansion down in Austin or occupying
a legislative seat in Washington. The same drive that got Delgado to where is now
is the same drive that in some ways is preventing him from rising further.
While aware of that dichotomy, Delgado is more focused on a mission of a
personal nature. Delgado wants a certain 13 year old autistic boy who lives with
his elderly grandmother in West Dallas found. The child has been possibly
missing for a few days now and the details of his living situation are very sketchy.
Delgado can’t use the vast resources of the DPD and needs a man with the proper
skills as well as being sufficiently motivated to get the job done. Considering
the boy’s name is Tremont Washington Jon Cantrell is most definitely the man on
both counts. Not only does he have the skill set, Jon Cantrell owes a debt to Tremont’s
father that he can never repay. Cantrell is also seriously annoyed that despite
what he had been told by the Texas Department of Public Safety ten years ago
the family was never relocated to California and has remained in a very bad
situation in West Dallas.
Tremont Washington has to be found.
That storyline is the primary storyline for the book which features several
other storylines all interconnected in various ways to the primary hunt for the
child. Throw in a missing government weapons shipment, an out of control SWAT
officer, city politics, and a series of vigilante murders, among other items, and
things get very interesting in the Texas heat.
Shadow Boys is a fast moving and intense read that surpasses the first
book, The
Contractors. Interspaced with the action and the mystery are small
flashes of cynical and often sarcastic humor. Violence comes in many forms in
this thriller as does political expediency and deceit. As in the first book of the
series, there is some hard edged sarcasm about the city along the Trinity River
that has no real reason for being other than sheer force of will. While
the Chamber of Commerce may hate Hunsicker’s non photo shopped version of Big
D, the author showcases yet again that he has a very good understanding of makes
the city and its residents tick in various ways. Along the way he delivers a
complex thriller that crisscrosses time and space all across the city proving
that Shadow
Boys is one book to make sure and read.
Book Three in the series is titled THE
GRID and was released August, 2015. The book is in my tbr pile and will
be read and reviewed soon.
Shadow Boys (A Jon Cantrell Thriller Book 2)
Harry Hunsicker
Thomas & Mercer
December 2014
ISBN#: 978-1477825754
Paperback
(also available in e-book and audio forms)
384
Pages
$8.99
Material
was supplied by the author quite some time ago in exchange for my objective
review.
Kevin
R. Tipple ©2015
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