Days of Reckoning [Kindle Edition]

Chris Stout (Author)

Book Description

“Days of Reckoning” is an action thriller. Miranda Leider is a young police officer looking for answers in her brother's death. In the process, she uncovers a deadly plot that reaches to the top of her department. Both hunter and hunted, she soon learns that the only difference between justice and revenge is which side of the gun you're on.

Product Details

• File Size: 655 KB
• Print Length: 206 pages
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Publisher: Chris Stout; 1st edition (December 5, 2010)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B004FEFD7M
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Not Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #568,194 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Exciting first novel by a promising writer December 16, 2010

By J. Gunnar Grey

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

If an award is ever given for the most action-packed book of the year, Days of Reckoning should be among the nominees. The story blasts from beginning to end, leaving this reader afraid to put it aside for fear it might keep going without her. The body count is high and the violence level not for the faint-hearted, but it's neither graphic nor gratuitous, and the hint of a romance between the two main characters adds a bittersweet undertone to what could have been just another anti-hero thriller.

Miranda Leider is tougher than her little brother, Justin, and fiercely protective. When he's bullied and abused at summer camp, she sees him safely off the premises then exacts a ferocious revenge, carefully arranged to leave her blameless. But the two children know what really happened, and the ugly bond formed between them is one they can never outgrow nor leave behind.

Fifteen years later, Miranda's a junior police officer in Sparta, Ohio, and Justin's hanging out with an Appalachian militia company. When his month-dead body is found in a fallow field, an apparent suicide, she knows something's wrong. Justin had problems, but he'd never kill himself. The police chief gives Miranda time away from the office for grieving, but she spends it investigating her brother's final days, locating the militiamen who last saw him alive, exercising her penchant for violence, and repeating her protective sins of the past.

Sam Connor is a Sparta PD detective, smarting from a vindictive divorce and hiding his attraction for the Charlie's Angel Miranda. With her on compassionate leave, he's holding the office when bodies start falling in the small college town. As the count rises and the whirlwind investigation draws closer to the brutal serial killer, Sam must face the reality of who he's hunting before the target falls on him.

Chris Stout's writing is bare and crisp, almost minimalist. The sparse description sometimes leaves the reader adrift in time and space, depending upon plotline and pacing to propel the story through such vacuums. Technical details are Clancy perfect, but the absence of background description extends here, as well, leaving the reader wondering how a MAC-11 feels against the shooter's hands as it's fired on full automatic. An added sentence or even a phrase in places could have deepened the reader's experience, but might also have interfered with the overwhelming rush of the story. Stout's decision to keep the writing lean might have been the proper one.

Editing is a dying art and all books produced these days have some level of typos. Days of Reckoning is no exception, and there are also a few continuity issues that have no significant bearing upon the story. One unfortunately distracting feature of this early e-pub manuscript, however, are formatting errors, where misplaced paragraph indentations sometimes slow the story's flow (Kindle version, can't answer for the Nook). Hopefully as the technology advances, such issues will vanish, leaving the story as compelling as the writer designed it.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars DAYS OF RECKONING packs some firepower! April 22, 2011

By Lee Howard

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Chris Stout knows his weapons and uses a lot of them in this debut thriller. His police procedure also seems on the spot and refreshingly realistic.

Stout skillfully portrays dark hero Miranda Leider, a cop playing both sides of legal justice, as she stalks the path of dissolution from loyal sibling to rogue avenger. The author explores a number of relevant themes in this book including racial prejudice, religious extremism, and vigilantism (seen from multiple perspectives).

What can I say of the cohort-become-antagonist Sam Connor? He's also a well-drawn character, as sympathetic as Miranda is dark and enigmatic. Miranda's logic is reasonable but yet disturbing. Identifying with her left me feeling unsettled, precarious, and this is what I find particularly effective in DAYS OF RECKONING. (I recall one evening as I was reading in my favorite chair, the wind outside howling in the dark, wondering if Miranda might be out there, observing me. Just a fleeting moment, but chilling nonetheless.)

There's no fluff in this book. The story moves from start to finish--careening around nail-biting twists--and leaves a trail of bullet-riddled bodies in its wake. I look forward to more like this from Stout.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Impressive story that keeps you invested from start to finish April 20, 2011

By Cheryl Bradshaw

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Days of Reckoning pulled me in right from the beginning, and I honestly don't want to say much more than that for fear of giving too much away, but trust me when I say it will hook you from the very start.

Here's just a little tidbit:

"Her aim had always been good, whether it was a softball, baseball, water balloon or hunting rifle. This time was no exception. The rock caught Donnie squarely in the back of the skull with a wet crunch. He screamed once and pitched over the side of the ravine. Bullseye. Miranda moved quickly to check her kill..."

You can see what I am saying now, right? The beginning (which is 13 years earlier than the rest of the story) is set up beautifully. And the great thing is, the entire novel is filled with juicy passages like the one above. I enjoyed seeing how Miranda developed throughout the story and what obstacles she had to face. Her character was really well written.

I can honestly say as far as the writing goes, Chris Stout's novel is one of the most interestingly unique book that I've read in quite some time, and at .99, it's a book that shouldn't be missed.

Chreyl Bradshaw, Author

More About the Author

Chris Stout holds an MA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University. His short fiction has appeared in the anthologies "Thou Shalt Not" (2006 by Dark Cloud Press) and "Sails and Sorcery" (2007 by Fantasist Enterprises). "Days of Reckoning" is his first novel.