Lesa's Book Critiques: KEVIN’S CORNER ANNEX – HAWKE’S PREY BY REAVIS Z. WORTHAM

 Lesa's Book Critiques: KEVIN’S CORNER ANNEX – HAWKE’S PREY BY REAVIS Z. WORTHAM

Lesa's Book Critiques: WINNERS AND FRONTIER MYSTERIES

 Lesa's Book Critiques: WINNERS AND FRONTIER MYSTERIES

Review: Hawke’s Prey: A Sonny Hawke Thriller by Reavis Z. Wortham

Unbeknownst to the good citizens of Ballard, Texas, as Hawke’s Prey: A Sonny Hawke Thriller by Reavis Z. Wortham begins, terrorists have crossed the nearby border and then violently through a nearby temporary border patrol checkpoint leaving bodies in their wake. While snowstorms and blizzards happen in this part of Southwest Texas, this one is a rare and massive super powered storm. The blizzard is not going to stop them from attacking and seizing the Presidio County Courthouse and taking those who survive the initial assault as hostages.

 

That includes Kelly Hawke, a teacher, and her civics class from the local school. That also means her own kids are also now held hostage with her and their fellow classmates in the occupied building. A legendary courthouse that is now occupied and full of innocent people, many terrorists, and a local legend in his own right, Sonny Hawke. The Texas Ranger is Kelly’s husband, father of their kids, and the only member of law enforcement in the building. The terrorists do not know that he is inside as he works to let Sheriff Ethan Armstrong know what is going on while doing recon and eliminating a terrorist or two along the way.

 

This book can pretty much be summed up as taking the concept for the movie Die Hard, making the setting a multilevel courthouse in far southwest Texas, make the terrorists homegrown and domestic with respective agendas, and let chaos ensue. This is a not a deep read nor is it intended to be as the thriller shifts among many points of view. Many of the characters are two dimensional and, as often happens, at least one of the on-site terrorist leaders is certifiably nuts. Of course, many of the foreign terrorists hate America for various sins while the home-grown ones seek to start a revolution that will, somehow, change America to what they believe were the good days back a couple of hundred years ago. This is billed as a thriller so one expects a lot of stereotypes and shallow characters as the focus is on constant action. 

One is not disappointed in that as Hawke’s Prey: A Sonny Hawke Thriller by Reavis Z. Wortham powers along the violence increases and events spiral out of anyone’s realistic control. A plan is only good until first contact with the enemy and that point is taught repeatedly throughout the entire read.

 

A tad jingoistic and more than a bit simplistic, Hawke’s Prey: A Sonny Hawke Thriller by Reavis Z. Wortham, despite the negatives for this reader, is an entertaining read. Might make a great movie through Bruce Willis is a bit old now for Hawke. He could easily be Sheriff Ethan Armstrong who is hamstrung by the intense weather and a lack of resources as well as trying to keep the locals from excising their second amendment rights on their own. The next book in this series is Hawke’s War and I am on hold for it at the library.

 

For another take on the book, make sure you check out Aubrey Hamilton’s review from last August.

 

Hawke’s Prey: A Sonny Hawke Thriller

Reavis Z. Wortham

http://reaviszwortham.com/

Center Point Large Print (Thorndike)

https://www.gale.com/thorndike/-/N-5p

October 2017

ISBN# 978-1-68324-535-3

Large Print Hardback (available in audio, eBook, Hardback, and paperback formats)

470 Pages

 

 

Material supplied by the Grauwyler Park Branch of the Dallas Public Library System.

 

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2020

Bill Crider's Pop Culture Magazine: Book Signing Tonight

Bill Crider's Pop Culture Magazine: Book Signing Tonight: I'll be in Austin this evening to sign books at Book People along with Ben Rehder and Reavis Wortham .  All you Austin folks come on out...

Reminder - Dallas MWA on Saturday, May 3, 2014

As posted elsewhere....

 9:30am is the time to hear speaker Reavis Z. Wortham.

As a boy, award-winning writer, Reavis Z. Wortham hunted and fished the river bottoms near Chicota, Texas, the inspiration for the fictional setting for The Rock Hole. He was born in Paris, Texas, but lived in Dallas. “We grew up in the city and went to school there, but every Friday evening my parents put us in the car and made the 120-mile drive to Chicota, where we truly lived at my grandparents’ place in the country until Sunday evening, when we came back to the city. Our true home was that little farm in Lamar County.” Reavis graduated from W.W. Samuell High School in Dallas. He attended Eastfield Junior College and graduated with a B.S in Industry and Technology from East Texas State University (now Texas A&M, Commerce). Upon graduation, he began a teaching career in Garland, Texas. He received a Masters in Education from E.T.S.U. and after ten years in the classroom, Reavis took the job as Communications Specialist for the GISD and remained in that department until he retired as Director of Communications in 2011.

He is the author of Doreen’s 24 HR Eat Gas Now Café. Humor editor and frequent contributor for Texas Fish and Game Magazine, he writes on everything from fishing to deer hunting. In addition to several other magazines, his work has appeared in American Cowboy and Texas Sporting Journal. A retired educator of 35 years, he and wife Shana live in Frisco, Texas. They have two daughters, Chelsea and Megan.

Since 1988, Reavis has written a self-syndicated weekly outdoor column for numerous Texas newspapers.



Please turn off cell phones during program and refrain from talking among yourselves while the speaker is talking. Try to keep your questions "general" rather than very specific to your own personal plot -- this will be more helpful to the whole audience.

The Dallas MWASW group meets the first Saturday of each month at Texas Land & Cattle, 812 South Central Expressway, Richardson, TX 75080. Meeting time is 9:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m. There is a $5.00 door fee, cash only (correct change greatly appreciated). All who attend are invited to remain for lunch. Contact info: james@gaskin.com

James
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James E. Gaskin
http://www.gaskin.com
Writer / Consultant / Speaker
Latest book: Email From a Dead Friend (Kindle)