Kevin's Corner: Jim Nesbitt

Showing posts with label Jim Nesbitt. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 11, 2026

Jim Nesbitt's Guest Post Review: The Poison Dart by Geri Dreiling

Please welcome back author Jim Nesbitt back to the blog today with his latest guest post review …

The main character in Geri Dreiling's second mystery novel, The Poison Dart, isn't a cop or a shamus so she doesn't carry a badge or a gun.

But Debbie Bradley, an investigative reporter, uses some of the same sly, dogged, bold, deceitful and sometimes illegal tricks a detective routinely pulls out of their hat.

Her lies are smooth and sweet. Her trespassing skills are stealthy and cat-burglar quick. Her stake-out chops are tenacious and iron-bottom sound. And she's a master at chasing the social media breadcrumbs that show the connects between the subjects of her stories.

Best of all, she takes the reader on a fast-paced ride-along as she shuffles through her tradecraft tricks to discover the next tendril of an ever-more-dangerous web of rich-kid heroin addicts, sleazy roadside deadbeats, redneck money mules, cartel killers and a Mexican family shackled to a network of ruthless drug traffickers.

Bradley, known as Crime Beat Girl for her underworld stories in a slick city magazine and the accompanying podcast that gives her a certain measure of fame, also takes readers on a tour d'horizon of St. Louis and its satellite towns.

It's a place where the top two questions everybody asks a stranger are: Where did you go to high school? And, which parish do you belong to? Yeah, it's a clannish town more than it is a city, very much focused on its storied past rather than its threadbare present, and the author takes the perfect snapshots that show its insular folkways.

There's a great riff on a St. Louis institution, the Wednesday lunch at St. Raymond's, the Maronite church just south of downtown that serves as the spiritual home for the city's Lebanese and Syrian immigrants. It's still a place where deals are made and pols, cops, mobsters and just plain folks rub elbows.

One of Bradley's regular podcast guests is a retired cop still known as Captain Jack Flannery, a renown raconteur who gives listeners -- and readers -- a fast, colorful summary of the mob wars of the early 1980s between the Mafia, the Syrian faction and a crew with connections to The Outfit in Chicago. More than a few tit-for-tat car bombings.

But this is a sideshow to the book's main event -- Bradley's initial intent to do a story about rich kids hooked on heroin, centering on the overdose death of a teen named Caleb Webb, the son of prominent real estate developers and twin brother to Connor.

This leads Bradley to Macie Holloway, Caleb's semi-girlfriend who blames herself for his death because she believes the source of his last heroin hit was someone she touted. Macie has the gaunt, doom-struck look of heroin addict deeply depressed about Caleb's death and his constant, spectral presence as a ghost whispering in her ear.

While Bradley is worming her way into Macie's confidence, a big drugs-and-money raid takes place out in the boonies west of St. Louis. At first, this seems like an event only tangentially related to Caleb's death.

But as Bradley pulls at the tendrils of this web, it becomes apparent that there's a direct connection between Caleb's death and the cartel that got stung by the raid and the murderous boss who runs it, El Duro.

Every tendril is another step in harm's way. But Bradley is relentless, locked on the trail of a suddenly far bigger story, refusing to back down, jazzed by the thrill of the hunt. After all, she's the Crime Beat Girl, a nickname she lives up to in this terrific novel by Geri Dreiling.

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4akwzSn

Jim Nesbitt is the award-winning author of five hard-boiled Texas crime thrillers that feature battered but dogged Dallas PI Ed Earl Burch. The fifth Ed Earl Burch novel, THE FATAL SAVING GRACE, has just been released. Nesbitt was a journalist for more than 30 years, serving as a reporter, editor and roving national correspondent for newspapers and wire services in Alabama, Florida, Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Washington, D.C. He now lives in Athens, Alabama, where he is writing his sixth Ed Earl Burch novel, THE PERFECT TRAIN WRECK.

Sunday, January 18, 2026

Guest Post: THE ASSASSINATION WE CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF by Jim Nesbitt

Please welcome author Jim Nesbitt back to the blog today with his latest guest post review …

THE ASSASSINATION WE CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF

America is a conspiracy-crazed nation, addicted to the breadcrumbs of "insider information" that only the few are smart enough to suss out, hyped on the latest finger-pointing revelation of shadowy string-pullers manipulating dastardly deeds too many are fervently willing to believe without question.

How did we get this way? Don't just blame the rise of social media that can inject a fresh dose of outlandish intrigue from your smartphone right into your brainpan. Look to the mother of all cabals, the malignant fountainhead of dark machinations and evil intrigue, the gateway to America's addiction to conspiracy theories -- the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

JFK's shocking murder in Dallas' Dealey Plaza on November 22, 1963 was one of the first major temblors of the turbulent 1960s. It was a seminal event that ripped a huge rift in America's cultural and political fabric and taught us a searing inaugural lesson about mistrusting our own government, hammered home by the assassinations of JFK's brother, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, Jr. as well as the violent upheaval and unrest caused by the Vietnam War.

More than sixty years after those fatal shots rang out, we're still morbidly fascinated, fixated on the question that still remains unanswered for many Americans: who killed John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the nation's 35th president?

Author Terrence McCauley shrewdly capitalizes on this eternal interest in JFK's murder with a superbly written historical novel, The Twilight Town: A Dallas '63 Novel, the second in a planned trilogy. It is work firmly rooted in the record, including a prequel novella focused on the squad of Cuban gunmen that fruitlessly awaited Kennedy's arrival in Chicago earlier that year. The book also leans on the most plausible alternatives to the official finding that an overwhelming majority of Americans don't believe -- Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone, killed Kennedy.

McCauley, a talented author of thrillers, Westerns and crime fiction, deftly weaves characters of his creation with the real-life figures of this American tragedy, including former Major Gen. Edwin Walker, a rabid right-wing extremist; Jack Ruby, the transplanted minor mobster and strip club owner who killed Oswald; J.D. Tippit, the Dallas police officer who was gunned down less than an hour after Kennedy's assassination, a murder pinned on Oswald by the Warren Commission; and, George de Mohrenschildt, a Russian-born geophysicist and occasional CIA asset.

But it's a smart move to center the narrative on a character of his own creation -- Dan Wilson, an ambitious Dallas police detective seconded to an FBI unit eavesdropping on the cop and criminal patrons of a popular diner. That way, the reader discovers the scattered pieces of this lethal puzzle as Wilson does, meeting the players along the way, both real-life, like Tippit, a fellow Korean War vet styled as Wilson's former partner, and fictional, like Harry Denton, a Dallas cop and sharpshooter who is part of cadre of hard-core segregationists and right-wingers commanded by a hyper-political captain.

Wilson, the son of a legendary Texas Ranger named Duke, is trying to parlay his FBI work into a gig as one of J. Edgar Hoover's boys and figures digging up dirt on Walker and his minions is the quickest way to climb this ladder.

He also befriends Oswald, turning him into a snitch and trailing him on a gun-running trip to camps in the Louisiana swamps used to train Cuban exiles for a possible sequel to the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion.

The camps are connected to two New Orleans figures who become targets of Orleans Parish DA Jim Garrison's later investigation of JFK's assassination, former Eastern Airlines pilot David Ferrie and former senior FBI agent Guy Banister, both rabid anti-Communists. Oswald spent the summer of 1963 in New Orleans, where he frequently passed out pro-Castro pamphlets printed at the building where Banister's private eye agency was located, which puts his political stance in question.

The pace is swift and the action is sudden and often violent, like Wilson's decision to murder one of Walker's key minions after he delivers a not-so-veiled threat toward Wilson's wife, leaving the body on Swish Street, the "pink part" of downtown Dallas.

It's a line you don't expect Wilson to cross and when he does, without as much as a blink, you instantly think of James Ellroy's murderous cops and that author's flawed masterpiece, American Tabloid. McCauley skillfully treads some of the same ground but refrains from the juddering and distracting gimmicks to tell a straight, edgy story we think we know but find out we don't.

So, let's ask the question again. Who killed Jack Kennedy? The Mob, pissed about Bobby's relentless prosecutions and the botched Cuba invasion? Gen. Walker's right-wing crazies who helped make Dallas a city of hate? How about the CIA, also angry about Cuba and Kennedy's desire to negotiate with the Soviet Union to ease Cold War tensions and get us out of Vietnam.

Or, it could have been D, all of the above, a hellish confluence of conspirators, with freelancers and operatives keeping a foot in several camps. McCauley does a masterful job portraying the criss-crossing connections and the swirl of deadly plots with no Mr. Big to rule them all.

Take your pick. Remember, though -- none of these players are a sure thing, but all had a reason for wanting Kennedy dead. And if you want to know where McCauley stands, buy his book. And the prequel, Chicago '63, as well as the sequel.

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4pLE0I2

Sunday, January 11, 2026

Substack: The Origins of Ed Earl Burch

Monday, December 22, 2025

Jim Nesbitt Reviews: The Iceman Cometh

Tuesday, December 09, 2025

Review: The Fatal Saving Grace: An Ed Earl Burch Novel by Jim Nesbitt

Some would call it justice. Some would call it revenge. No matter what you call it, the concept has been a long running theme of the Ed Earl Burch series. The same is very much true in the fifth book of the series, The Fatal Saving Grace: An Ed Earl Burch Novel by Jim Nesbitt.

This novel picks up a few months after The Dead Certain Doubt. This read addresses those events and brings some of the characters back while also addressing events earlier in the series. That means that it is impossible to review this read without referencing some spoilers if you have not read the previous book. I am doing my best to minimize that aspect of things. But, if you keep reading you were warned….

This is a novel of tying up loose ends and settling scores. It begins with Ed Earl Burch barely surviving a far Southwest Texas ambush. These days he carries a shield as an investigator for the Cuervo County District Attorney. Technically that would make the DA his boss, but the reality is that he reports to the Cuervo County Sheriff Sudden Doggett as well as a retired Texas Ranger by the same of Dub McKee. McKee has connections to powerful people and made it happen and roped Sudden Doggett into the plan to give Burch a badge again despite what happened with the Dallas Police way back when. Burch tends to be a burr under Doggett’s saddle as the two men don’t mesh well for a variety of reasons.

Based out of the Sherrif’s Office in Faver, and within a couple of hours drive down to Marfa and Presidio, Burch is teamed up with Deputy Sheriff Bobby Quintero as the two chase down leads on who might have tried to ambush Burch on his way home.

Not only is Bobby good company, he has great skills as he was a Ranger and worked in some of the worst trouble spots on the globe. Still, Burch would prefer to go it alone. Because Burch does his own thing. Always.

Being a one-man band fits his personality best. Having the badge back after losing it many years ago in Dallas is great and all, but it has not been as good as he thought it would be. He is feeling a bit suffocated by being forced to work with others, go through a chain of command, follow orders, and control his outlaw impulses. He was brought in to get things done as he had the reputation of being a loose cannon that got results, and now he is supposed to work with others after years of going his own way to get justice and settle scores.

He is also missing the heck out of Carla Sue Cantrell who recently took off and said she might be back whenever. He has found solace in the arms of a couple of local women, but they are a poor substitute. Inleading the certain lady that can make one heck of a chicken fried steak.

(Don’t read this while your hungry as food comes up a lot. Especially if you have not had a good chicken fried steak in years.)

In the here and now, Burch was chasing leads on one Lonny Dalrymple and apparently that stirred up somebody to try the ambush. There was a big murder case awhile back and it was believed there were three killers involved. Two are dead. One is death row where he belongs. The case was supposed to be closed and done.

But, the supremely talented County Crime Tech, Katie Navarro, was able to identify some additional latent prints from the victim’s Airstream trailer. They belonged to Lonny Dalrymple. Burch had been going around Presidio asking questions and was headed back to his isolated home when a flash of light off of nearby rocks made him react. He jerked the wheel of his old truck and the first shot of many to come hit the roof of his truck instead of his head.

The resulting gun battle left the shooter dead and Burch fuming. He is going to go back and brace the people he already talked to, for starters, to track down the parties involved. He wanted to go alone, but Sheriff Doggett told him Quintero was going with him, and that was that. He didn’t want company, but if he has to have some, Quintero is good to have along.

Especially when the dead and gone don’t stay either way.

As always in this crime fiction series, there is nearly constant graphic violence and quite a lot of graphic sex. There is also a lot of settling scores as this novel winds up several different story arcs. A fast moving read that is over all too soon, The Fatal Saving Grace is also a mighty good read.

Strongly recommended.

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3Xtq3mn

My ARC digital reading copy came from the author with no expectation of a review.

Friday, October 31, 2025

Friday's Forgotten Books Review: The Dead Certain Doubt: An Ed Earl Bunch Novel by Jim Nesbitt

With Jim Nesbitt’s recent Facebook announcement that the new book in the series, The Fatal Saving Grace, is coming soon, I have been reminding you each Friday of the series to date. This is a violent crime fiction series that should be read in order. This is the fourth book in the series and the most recent installment.

Dallas Private Investigator Ed Earl Burch has a love/hate relationship with West Texas. Loves the land and its stark beauty. Does not care for many of the people--- especially the ones that have repeatedly tried to kill him. But, truth be told, he never felt more alive than when working out there being the manhunter deal where one kills or is killed. It was like working Dallas Homicide without the red tape. Get the bad guys and gals, dead or alive.

In the wake of the savings and loan collapse the last decade, these days he is off the pills and making a good living going after the fugitive partners of real estate deals that went bad, finding hidden asserts, and nailing dead beat developers. He has done so well that he got his lawyer paid off and that meant he was free and clear from that shyster. Also did well enough to open an IRA and play in the stock market a little. He is a regular guy these guys with bad knees, mental and physical scars, and is absolutely bored out of his mind.

He’s spending his nights at Louie’s when he can’t sleep. Drinking and sharing war stories with a bunch of retired Dallas cops and other folks. Those old stories bring back a lot of memories. Also tends to sooth the voice of his long dead partner.

One memory from the past brings a lot of pain and guilt. Juanita Mutscher, at one time had an ex-mother-in-law, Theda Bayer. That woman had a daughter, Rhonda May Bayer. After Theda Bayer died as a result of her own toxic ways, Burch pulled a few strings and greased the wheels so that Rhonda Mae, who was six or seven back then, could go back to Juanita to live at her place out in the country between Midlothian and Venus.

It should have been a good deal.

It was until her Daddy came back in Rhonda Mae’s teen years, got full custody, and had Rhonda Mae move in with him. Things spiraled out of control. Burch intervened the first few times as she did drugs, booze and more, and repeatedly found herself deep in in consequences and trouble with the law. But, being off the Dallas PD by this time meant he had far less sway or markers to call in to help. He also got fed up riding to her rescue.

Now more than a decade later, Burch decides to go see Juanita and to make amends as best as he can. The years have not been kind to her and she makes it clear to Burch she is not long for this world. Her husband is dead and the next stroke she has will no doubt will send her on her way to him in the afterlife.

She would not have called. But, since he is at her place seeking redemption, she wants him to find Rhonda Mae. Been over a year since Juanita last heard from her. All she knows is that means the young woman is in trouble, not surprising since she is out in West Texas and mixed up in one of those Texas secession groups. While all the various groups preaching that nonsense are bad news, some are far worse than others.

Which one Rhona Mae is in, Juanita does not know. Juanita did save the letters that Rhonda Mae sent and she wrote some about what she was doing so that might help. Most of them were postmarked in Faver. A small town along the border. A place that Burch knows and he also knows the Sheriff down there pretty well.

With a starting point, a couple of ideas, his guns, and a handful of memories and ghosts, Burch packs up and goes down to see if he can find Rhonda Mae. It is a quest for redemption and to save the living, if he can. It does not take long for Burch to find blood, bullets, and mayhem. For Burch, this is the way.

The Dead Certain Doubt: An Ed Earl Burch Novel is the latest read in the series that began long ago with The Last Second Chance. As such, one expects the read to be complicated, violent, and graphic in terms of that violence as well as intimacy between partners of the night or long-term relationship. Such is true here as author Jim Nesbitt pulls out all the stops in every area.

At the same time, a significant part of this book is about Burch’s history and past cases. He has seen a lot and those deals are a major backbone of this book. Some situations, major parts of previous books, are detailed here in multiple paragraph odes of remembrance. As such, it would be best to have read the previous books before embarking on this read.

The Dead Certain Doubt: An Ed Earl Burch Novel by Jim Nesbitt is a powerfully dark and very violent crime fiction read. It is also incredibly good.

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4qEfquw

My reading copy was an ARC provided by the author with no expectation of a review.

Friday, October 24, 2025

Friday's Forgotten Books Review: The Best Lousy Choice: An Ed Earl Burch Novel by Jim Nesbitt

The Best Lousy Choice: An Ed Earl Burch Novel begins with Ed Earl Burch hurting in more ways than one. Demons haunt his dreams and are a specter barely unseen during his waking hours. Narcotics and lots of whisky keep things a little bit at bay, though working is what works best for the private investigator that was once many years ago, a Dallas Homicide Detective, who believed in the law and that justice would rule the day. Burch knows better now and has the many physical and mental scars to show for it.

The year is 1989 and the legendary Dallas Cowboys barely exist in name only thanks to that shyster owner out of Arkansas. The Oklahoma Sooners suck and will always suck, as any true Texan knows, and Louie’s Bar is the best place for booze and Campisi’s on Mockingbird is the best for pizza. One often finds Ed Earl Burch in one place or the other, more often Louie’s, and that means those that know Burch know where to find him. One such person is Fat Willie Nofzinger, his lawyer, and a man that can’t be ignored. Nofzinger holds the note on Burch’s business and has the cards that, for now, have kept Burch out of the county jail. So, Burch has to listen to Nofzinger and do what he wants, but he doesn’t have to like it or make it easy on him

The last thing Burch wants to do is to go out to West Texas. He barely survived events out there last time and some folks would love it if he came back so they could settle scores. The fact that it is a divorce case, the type of case Burch absolutely hates, does not improve the situation.

Fat Willie Nozfinger has a rich female client by the name of Nita Rodriguez Wyatt. The very wealthy woman has heard of Burch, wants him hired, and knows enough to go through Nozfinger to get him on the case. A case from a while back and a talkative former client who was very grateful for the help means Wyatt wants him and won’t take no for an answer. Not that Nozfinger is going to allow Burch to say no as Nozfinger also stands to make buck off of Burch working the case. Refusal to take the job means severe consequences for Burch and ones he can’t accept.

Hating every second of it, all Burch can do is pack up and head out to West Texas. Plan is to do his five days of supposedly easy money and pocket his cash, while also separately slashing a bit of his debt to Nozfinger, and get back to Dallas without anyone being the wiser. That was before the gun play, public and not so public carnage, a possibly bent sheriff, an obvious and very bitter family feud, and more come into play. Ed Earl Burch is in a world of trouble before he hits the sun-baked wilds of West Texas and things are only going to go downhill in an escalating violent way.

The Best Lousy Choice: An Ed Earl Burch Novel is the third in the series that began with The Last Second Chance followed by The Right Wrong Number. One expects before one opens the book that there will be plenty of action, carnal adventures, frequent carnage, along with plenty of observations about Texas history and some sarcastic comments about life in the great state of Texas. Things will be graphic and detailed in terms of settings, language, and violence. Author Jim Nesbitt meets and exceeds those expectations in The Best Lousy Choice: An Ed Earl Burch Novel.

This review is a mere West Texas mirage glimpsed on the distant horizon down a crooked two-lane macadam roadway. The review just does not do the book justice and the read is an intense and a violent crime fiction read. A book that, like the series itself, is highly recommended. It would be best to read in order, but do what you will.

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/42WbDhT

Material in the form of an ARC was provided with no expectation of a review.

Friday, October 17, 2025

Friday's Forgotten Books: The Right Wrong Number: An Ed Earl Burch Novel by Jim Nesbitt

After reminding you of the first book in this very good crime fiction series, The Last Second Chance, last Friday, I thought I would remind you today of the second book, The Right Wrong Number: An Ed Earl Burch Novel by Jim Nesbitt. Best to read in order. Dodge the flying ashtrays.

It has been several years since the events of The Last Second Chance: An Ed Earl Burch Novel and private detective Ed Earl Burch still carries those scars and many more. Many of those scars haunt his dreams and daylight memories often inspired by drinking, smoking, or the way a woman’s hair moved on the lady across the bar. Dangerous women were always his downfall and one of those has crawled back into his life.

Her name is Savannah Crowe these days though Ed knew her in every sense possible before she got married. She lives down in Houston and is married to an attorney who does oil and gas partnerships. At least that was what he was supposed to be doing. Apparently he was shady, at best, and now he is dead. No doubt murdered by some guys out of New Orleans who are looking for the money he stole. Savannah wants Ed Earl Burch to come down from Dallas and protect her. Not just from those guys out of New Orleans, as the cops are also pushing hard at her thinking she killed her own husband, and there might be some other players as well.

Sure, she can hire the best attorney in Texas, a certain man by the name of Racehorse Haynes, but having the money to do that is not enough. A lot more than she has is missing because her husband stole it. Savannah wants Ed Earl Burch to find her husband---the body left in the flaming wreckage wasn’t positively identifiable--- or the guys who killed him. If he can find either party, the money should also turn up.

Being broke thanks to a downturn in business as the economy improves under President Clinton means Ed Earl Burch is already in a bind before his attorney pushes him hard. His attorney concocted an elaborate evidentiary pyramid to keep his rear end out of prison at the cost of 20k plus and is calling everything due and payable now. He can’t pay so the prison option and far worse things are back on the table. He has other money trouble as well. While Savannah is willing to offer far more than money to Ed Earl Burch for coming down and helping out, all he wants is money with at least half of his fee upfront to stall out the attorney. She’s trouble, but she can pay the bucks, and he needs the bucks desperately.

Before long, he is down in Houston, and all hell is breaking loose. The case will lead him across Texas to a little place just down south of Big Bend in Northern Mexico for a final showdown to settle lots of scores.

The Right Wrong Number: And Ed Earl Burch Novel is a sequel of sorts to The Last Second Chance. Sequel in terms of the characters, grudges held, and memories that haunt the living as more than one character from the first book appears here as the point of view shifts throughout the read. That means it is very important to have read that book first before taking on this read.

Readers should also be aware that, as they were in the first, graphic language and descriptions in terms of sexuality as well as plenty of violence are present in this read. This is a hard hitting and graphic crime fiction read written in a noir style. Therefore, the full range of language is used and a substantial portion of it is graphic in terms of description regarding sexual situations, violent actions, motivations of others, etc. as the read shifts in point of view. Those point of view shifts are very frequent by way of a number of characters throughout the book while maintaining a fast paced and often violent flow of action.

A read that powers along with plenty of action while providing some serious as well as funny social commentary, The Right Wrong Number: An Ed Earl Burch Novel is another mighty good read from author Jim Nesbitt. Both books are highly recommended. The third book in the series is underway according to a recent comment on Facebook by the author.

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/47a5srP

An ARC was supplied by the author’s publicist, a long time ago for my use to read and review.

Friday, October 10, 2025

Friday's Forgotten Books: The Last Second Chance: An Ed Earl Burch Novel by Jim Nesbitt

With Jim Nesbitt’s recent Facebook announcement that the new book in the series, The Fatal Saving Grace, is coming soon, I thought I would remind you today of the great first book in the series, The Last Second Chance: An Ed Earl Burch Novel. This is a violent crime fiction series that should be read in order.

In the wreckage of the S&L crisis of the late 80s and early 90s, Ed Earl Burch works as a private detective. His office located near Mockingbird and Central in Dallas in a shabby office park with a view of the time and temp sign over at the Dr. Pepper Plant. It features the noise of the traffic, an air conditioner that wheezes and does not cool, and a man with a serious thirst for alcohol.

Ed Earl Burch is hanging on as best as he can. He has made a few bucks thanks to the scavengers that have come to feats on the remains of the S&L crash as well as former business partners looking for their partner or bank officers looking for the developer that just vanished. He has connections all over town and beyond dating back to his days with the Dallas PD. That fact, as well as his low overhead in an increasingly vacant building, has helped him survive.

About ten blocks away is a small Mexican joint on Ross. Owned by Arturo Garcia, the place known to everyone as “Café Garcia” is always open to Ed Earl Burch. Bringing home the pregnant teenage daughter of Arturo Garcia means there is always a plate of food and a beer for Burch. It has been that way for quite some time so it means it is one of several locations that Burch can be predictably found.

The woman with the gun who interrupts his late dinner has other plans. After dropping a name from the past, at gunpoint she escorts him out to her car. Before very long, they are north of Dallas, up in Grayson Country, and on the land of a man who has left the life of crime behind for the life as a gentlemen rancher. Appearances, if one ignored the gun toting guards scattered everywhere, could be deceiving.

Burch knows exactly what Norville Ross is and could have done without the jaunt down memory lane. But, Ross wanted him here and made sure he was brought in as safely and as quickly as possible. Coming himself was not an option. The woman’s name is Carla Sue. Ross sent her to bring back Burch so that he could discuss with him a business proposition that each could find mutually satisfactory.

If any of them can say alive long enough to seal the deal.

The Last Second Chance: An Ed Earl Burch Novel by Jim Nesbitt is a violent crime fiction ride across Texas. Written in a noir style it features a read where the language is coarse, the sexual situations are graphic, and bullets and blood are on nearly every page. Burch takes no prisoners and will unleash hell on those who come after him and those he cares about.

Along the way, there will be heavy toll in carnage and death with plenty of ghosts of the past to keep him company in quiet moments. Author Jim Nesbitt is building the bottom floor of a series with The Last Second Chance: An Ed Earl Burch Novel. A novel that packs quite the punch and is highly recommended.

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4nKZvZs

According to Amazon, I picked this up in the middle of last November. I don’t know now if I took advantage of a free read promotion or used funds in my Amazon Associate account. Either way, I did it after a publicist contacted me about reviewing the second book in the series, The Right Wrong Number. A paperback copy of that read is in my TBR pile.

Thursday, November 14, 2024

Jim Nesbitt: Ed Earl Does Dallas

Sunday, March 05, 2023

Review: The Dead Certain Doubt by Jim Nesbitt

He’s spending his nights at Louie’s when he can’t sleep, drinking, and sharing war stories with a bunch of retired Dallas cops and other folks. Those old stories bring back a lot of memories. Also tends to sooth the voice of his long dead partner.

It should have been a good deal.

The Dead Certain Doubt: An Ed Earl Burch Novel by Jim Nesbitt is a powerfully dark and very violent crime fiction read. It is also incredibly good.

My reading copy was an ARC provided by the author with no expectation of a review.

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