Border Patrol Agent
Hunter Kincaid saw the murder happen, but was powerless to prevent it. From a
half mile away from where she stood on the side of Devil’s Ridge watching
through binoculars, she saw the big man shoot the Mexican in the head. She had
no idea who the guy was, but he was clearly huge. She and three other agents
had chased the pair all day until “the giant” had solved the problem by killing
his companion.
After the shooting in
Presidio County of the Big Bend region of deep Southwest Texas, the man easily escaped
back across the border. Dressed in his military camo outfit he had stared back
at her as he stood over the man he had just killed and then left at an easy jog
secure in the knowledge she and her people could not stop him. Not only did
they lose the guides as he left and his fellow guide was dead, they never found
the forty illegals that came across the river with the guides.
Hundreds of miles
away in Pembroke Pines, Florida, Homicide Detective John Quick and his partner,
Randall Ishtee have their own very difficult case. The body of a woman was dumped
in a drainage canal. She was stabbed with something like a machete or a large
knife somewhere else and then transported to this location to be dumped. With the
way the body is in the drainage canal, it would take somebody big and strong to
do it. Possibly the person who left size fourteen, if not bigger, shoeprints at
the scene.
Gradually the two
storylines merge as Quck: A Hunter Kincaid Mystery shifts back and forth between various
members of law enforcement and the criminals involved in the cases. Despite the
fact this is billed as A Hunter Kincaid Mystery, the
majority of the read is with Detective John Quick and numerous other
characters. Much of the story slows down dramatically to fill in the
backstory of John Quick who, like Hunter, has been deeply traumatized by the
past and his previous actions.
That trauma involves
the brutal and graphic torture murders of his family. Both his wife and baby
son were killed. Unfortunately, that is not the only brutality vividly
described in the read. The adult language as well as detailed and graphic
descriptions of violence, including the removal of a baby’s genitals, will be
an issue for more than some readers. Much of these very graphic descriptions do
little, if anything, to advance the story line and are present for the sole
reason of shocking the reader.
While not as severe a
problem in the read, Quick: A Hunter Kincaid Mystery
contains a number of typos, incorrect word choice usage, missing quotation
marks, and other grammar and formatting issues. While they did not affect the
understanding of the storylines, they were distracting from the read.
Though there is a good
core story to Quick: A Hunter Kincaid Mystery by Bill Kring, the typos and
other grammar issues, as well as the descriptive torture scenes definitely negatively
impact the book. So too does the fact that, despite its title, the vast
majority of the read is not with the signature character Hunter Kincaid. In
fact, it appears to this reader that Hunter is present in approximately a
third, if not less, of the book.
While the basic storylines
had significant potential, in the end, the read was significantly harmed by too
much filler, a number of graphic torture descriptions that serve no point to
advance the story, and the need for editing in terms of typos, incorrect word
choice, missing quotation marks, etc. The book would benefit from proofreading
to correct the grammar issues as author understanding that not everything
somebody does to somebody else has to be described. It is also not at all
necessary to describe every single item in every single room of a home though
that is far preferable to detailing everything with regards to torture and
mutilation scenes.
Having previously
read The
Devil’s Footprints: A Hunter Kincaid Short Story I am well aware that
the author can do much better than this effort. While I do recommend that very entertaining short story, I do not recommend Quick:
A Hunter Kincaid Mystery
for the reasons noted in this review.
Quick: A Hunter Kincaid Mystery
Bill Kring
Self-Published
January 2014
ASIN: B00DD5YWS0
eBook (paperback available)
265 Pages
$0.99
According to Amazon, I picked this up
back in June of 2015. I have no idea now if this was by way of a free read promotion,
funds in my Amazon Associate account, or some other means.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2017
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