Showing posts with label drug cartels. Show all posts
Showing posts with label drug cartels. Show all posts
Thursday, February 08, 2018
Wednesday, November 22, 2017
Crime Watch: Review: THE WAYS OF WOLFE
Crime Watch: Review: THE WAYS OF WOLFE: THE WAYS OF WOLFE by James Carlos Blake (Mysterious Press, 2017) Reviewed by Craig Sisterson Twenty years ago, college student Axel Pr...
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Review: "To Hell And Gone In Texas" by Russ Hall
Former Sheriff Detective Al Quinn is enjoying his
retirement as well as his small home on the shores of a lake near Austin,
Texas. In some ways he misses his former
job, but in others he is glad to be out as 25 years with the Travis County
Sheriff’s Department was long enough even if he had a good boss. His biggest annoyance these days at his
isolated home is the drought. If the
unrelenting Texas sun keeps cooking the surrounding area forcing the lake level
ever lower he will soon have to do some work to extend the boat dock.
The call from Sheriff Clayton of Travis County, his
former boss, changes things. According to Clayton, Ali’s estranged brother,
Maury, is in the hospital. The homicide
unit of Austin Police Department thinks it was a possible murder attempt.
Sheriff Clayton does not know anymore more and that means Al is going to have
to break the twenty year silence between them.
Al soon finds not only Maury in the hospital, but
Detective Ferguson Jergens by his side. Al had known her back in High School, even
taken her to the Prom, and a lot of years have passed. According to her,
somebody gave Maury three tablets of Viagra, a drug he had no prescription for
and should have never taken, and it almost killed him. He is still alive and is
not out of the woods yet. Whether it happened at the assisted living center
where Maury lives or by some other way has yet to be determined. Maury can’t
talk. It also has not been determined
if, Maury, a ladies man possibly did it to himself or willingly took the pills
offered by others. According to
Detective Jenkins everyone one is a possible suspect and that includes Al
because he is the brother and their long history of conflict.
Al may hate his brother for good reason, but he
certainly did not attempt to kill him. If he wanted his brother dead he would
have done it years ago. He also may be retired and considered a suspect by the
beautiful detective, but that is not going to stop him from going over to the assisted
living center which is Maury’s home and start asking questions. Before long a second attempt on Maury’s life
is made, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are involved, and ,
and members of a notorious Mexican drug cartel are involved in a case that
moves all over the Austin area as Maury, Al, and their friends battle to stay
alive.
Well known for Bones
In the Rain (Blue-Eyed Indian Mystery Series)
and quite a few other books, award winning author Russ Hall has a really good
book on his hands with To Hell And Gone In Texas. A
complex action oriented mystery full of interesting characters, numerous
suspects and plenty of clues, as well as lots of local color regarding the
Austin, Texas area, this is a book that comes fully alive for the reader. All of the above is a very long way of saying the
book is very good and well worth your time.
To
Hell And Gone In Texas
Russ
Hall
Red
Adept Publishing
August
2014
ISBN#
978-1-940215-33-4
Large
Paperback (also available in e-book)
238
Pages
$13.99
Material
supplied by the author in exchange for my objective review.
Kevin
R. Tipple ©2014
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
Thursday, March 27, 2014
Review: "The Contractors: A Thriller" by Harry Hunsicker
Anyone who has read the Lee Henry Oswald series by
Harry Hunsicker knows that the author does not write the Dallas Chamber of Commerce
ad copy type of books. The Dallas streets in his books are not of glitter and
not necessarily always mean. Instead, these streets are broken dreams, cracked
asphalt and the five dollar whore on the corner who might be turning tricks to
feed the child she will soon lose to the state. These are streets where nobody
cares because everybody has a sob story. Bad things happen to all on the
streets of Dallas in his books and The Contractors: A Thriller raises
that bar to all new levels.
The Contractors: A Thriller
While nearly everyone has heard of the private
contractors working in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere overseas, they also are
working her at home. Jon Cantrell and Piper are contractors for the DEA and a
lot more as well as being romantically involved. As the book opens they are on
the trail of Lisa, a missing 14 year old teenager. Hired by a retired crooked
cop named Sinclair they need to find the girl and get her back home. Not only
will that get them paid, it will allow them to focus on another job.
Under their real job of working for the DEA, they
are going to raid a local warehouse and seize the drugs. Unlike their sideline business with Sinclair
where they get paid a small amount, this sanctioned job will pay big and be
fully legal as they operate as private contractors for the DEA. That is their plan for how to handle work,
but they have no plan for how to handle their relationship going forward.
They aren’t the only private contractors working for
the DEA and other parties in the Dallas Fort Worth area. They are not the only ones that have a plan
for the warehouse or the contents inside.
While others know about the secret cartel witness being held captive in
the warehouse, Jon and Piper have no idea nor do they have any idea what they
are in for when they find her. As the already fragile relationship between
Piper and Jon disintegrates, they will have to battle in a flight across Texas trying
to stay ahead of the many people who want them dead for various and often competing
reasons.
It is going to be a brutally long week in August and
not just because of the Texas sun.
Those who expect a serious mystery in the style of
the excellent Lee Henry Oswald series will be disappointed in The Contractors:
A Thriller. Instead, think of this more like a summer movie such as The
Expendables for example. There will be carnage and mayhem, the body
count will climb, lots of weapons will be used mixed in with plenty of explosions,
and the heroes will escape certain death again and again. In short, a fun read that
one should not take seriously. That is not a disparagement. It is a fact and one
that clearly a number of reviewers elsewhere failed to understand as they didn’t
get it.
This is a fast paced action orientated novel where nearly
everyone has very few redeeming qualities. A thriller in every sense of the
word where character development is limited and told in occasional bursts of backstory
to give readers a break from the frenetic forward pace. Written in a movie type
style of very short chapters and very few reflective moments for the characters,
the book nearly constantly is focused on moving the characters forward at a
hard pace. Constant explosions, gunfire, and mayhem, drive the book forward where
everyone has an agenda and will use anybody and any means necessary to get
their way. The Contractors: A Thriller by
Harry Hunsicker takes readers on a violent and bloody rampage from one end of Texas
to the other in a read that constantly twists and turns on ways that should
keep readers hooked to the very end.
The Contractors: A Thriller
Harry
Hunsicker
Thomas
& Mercer (Amazon)
February 2014
ISBN-13: 978-1477808726
E-Book
(available in paperback and audio)
514
Pages
$4.99
E-Book ARC was provided by the publisher in exchange
for my objective review.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2014
Saturday, May 04, 2013
Review: "Red Mountain: A Detective DiPino Thriller" by David Thayer
The four member team sent to
Rhinebeck, New York, had one target and one mission objective. The Durres
Syndicate wants Walt Bergman dead and they want his records. As the commander
of the NYPD Intelligence Division he knows where the bodies are buried on and
off the force. He knows the identity of confidential informants, undercover
police officers, and more. The information he has is priceless. Among other
things he is involved in, Walt Burgman is trying to use one very bad man, Edon
Calcani, to get an even worse guy by the name of Josef Brint and permanently
stop a weapon selling operation. The plan is to take them both down and anyone
else around with no help from the FBI or The Joint Terrorism Task Force. That was his plan when the plumbers he called
about a leak showed up at his door.
It was late in the evening
when Detective Mickey Reidel got the call in Queens. Walt Bergman is dead,
things are hitting the proverbial fan at every level in the NYPD, and the brass
is very hopeful the death is a suicide. Mickey is being put on the case with
the expectation that he can be counted on to understand the situation and do
what he is told. They should have known better as Mickey, like everyone in this
book, has his own complicated agenda. The brass can wish all they want, but, it
takes Mickey a matter of minutes to clearly see that Bergman’s death was anything
but a suicide. After all, who lies down
on the floor and then shoots himself?
Shifting through the point
of view of Mickey, his former partner, DiPino, cartel big shots, and numerous
other characters, readers are taken through a wild ride that primarily covers
an intense 48 hours as scores and grudges start getting settled. Bodies fall, allegiances
shift, agendas collide, and Mickey and Dipino in mostly separate storylines struggle
to stay alive in the ensuring chaos and carnage.
Self-published by the author, the book is an enjoyable thriller despite the occasional typo. The cast of characters is large with the read shifting constantly through the various characters. Everyone in the book has an agenda with most driven by political expediency to save their own careers, jobs, lives, etc. Character depth is rather limited, as is the case with most thrillers, and tends to be of the stock character type. The exceptions are Mickey and to a lesser extent Dipinio who are fleshed out a bit more than the other characters with backstory, motivations, etc. Despite the tag line of A Detective DiPino Thriller the majority of the book is aimed squarely at Detective Mickey Reidel with DiPino playing a distant secondary role.
As one expects in a book
billed as a thriller, the focus is on the action and moving the multiple storylines
forward at an intense pace. Such is the case here in Red Mountain: A Detective DiPino
Thriller where the action is often fast and furious. It soon becomes clear
to readers that when the book slows down for personal reflection internally with
a character or a revealing moment between characters somebody is sure to
suddenly and unexpectedly die as the author’s solution to keep things going is
to always kill another character. Despite the occasional typo and the author's
tendency to occasion over write with lines such as “his dinner of scrambled
eggs and Irish whiskey orbited through his digestive tract like an obnoxious
tourist in midtown” the resulting read is a pleasant diversion.
Red Mountain: A Detective DiPino
Thriller
David Thayer
David Thayer Consulting
September 2012
ISBN# 978-1-4675-3589-2
E-Book (estimated print length 213 pages)
$5.99
Material was picked up during
the author’s advertised free read promotion for my use in regards to an objective
review.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2013
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