The Devil's Right Hand [Mass Market Paperback]

J.D. Rhoades (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 27, 2005

Ex-cons DeWayne and Leonard thought it was a simple plan: Swipe the payroll from a local construction company and make off with easy cash. Pity they left the owner dead. Bigger pity is that the owner's son is a violent drug-dealer who's crazier than the low-caliber ex-cons
he's vowed to nail--along with anyone else who gets in his way.

Bounty hunter and war vet Jack Keller is the perfect man for his job. With a brain full of combat nightmares, he's primed for every hunt, keen for the heady scent of gunfire, and high on the release each takedown brings. His new quarry is bail-jumper DeWayne, but even Keller isn't
prepared for where this chase is going to take him.

Caught in a violent vendetta between two trigger-happy rednecks and a psycho blinded by rage, Keller's soon spiraling into a revenge plot set to explode in the North Carolina backwoods. Add to this murderous mix a local cop with his own agenda and his beautiful partner who's hot for men on the edge, and someone's bound to see hell before the night is over.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Loaded with testosterone and high-caliber weapons, Rhoades's hard-boiled debut lurches from one bloody gun battle to another in the streets and back alleys of Fayetteville, N.C., as a bounty hunter finds himself drawing highly unwelcome attention. When dim-witted cousins DeWayne and Leonard kill an old Lumbee Indian during their first armed robbery, they get a load of trouble along with the cash. Raymond, one of the victim's sons and a vicious local crime boss, vows to kill everyone involved with his father's death. Caught in between is Jack Keller, a bail bondsman's enforcer; he's after DeWayne for skipping out on his breaking and entering bail. A Gulf War veteran tormented by guilt over the deaths of his squad members in a friendly fire incident, Jack must now deal with the two armed robbers, crazed Raymond and his gang of assorted Colombian gunmen, and sadistic cops who mistakenly think he's the cause of all the mayhem. Resourceful and determined, Jack happily lays out a few bad guys himself, but he's annoyed that everybody wants to kill him, too. He is arrested, beaten up, shot at and pursued, making miraculous escapes each time in the best pulp fiction tradition. Add spectacular car chases, kidnapping, torture, carjacking, a dozen killings and lukewarm sex scenes, and this gritty novel has everything it needs except for suspense, mystery and likable characters.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Rhoades slaps this supercharged crime-fiction debut into overdrive in the first paragraph and never lets up through nearly 300 pages of nonstop action. It starts with a simple armed robbery in which two dumb and dumber ex-cons, Leonard and DeWayne, set out to steal the weekly payroll from an elderly Native American who owns a construction company. It quickly goes wrong, however, and the owner is killed. Meanwhile, bounty hunter Jack Keller, a Gulf War vet with a head full of nightmares, is already tracking bail-jumper DeWayne. He'll have to hurry, though, if he hopes to find his quarry before the dead man's son, a drug dealer who is every bit as violent and considerably crazier than the killers he tracks. Throw in a couple of psycho cops with a thing about bounty hunters, and you have the narrative equivalent of a string of homemade bombs timed to explode at random along the Arkansas back roads. Like Stephen Hunter's Dirty White Boys, however, this is not simply a car-chase-with-fireworks novel; Rhoades builds his rampaging white boys from the ground up, complete with believable backstory and humanizing shots of Pulp Fiction-like humor. Keller is a definite keeper, the kind of flawed noir hero that women want to nurse, cops want to bust, and bad guys want to hurt. There's a formula at work here, of course, but Rhoades never gives us time to feel manipulated. More Keller, please, and soon. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks (December 27, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312938667
• ISBN-13: 978-0312938666
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,735,141 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Author, attorney, award winning newspaper columnist--J.D. Rhoades is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma; but with a soft creamy center. He attended the University of North Carolina, where he majored in Spelling. A stint in UNC's creative writing program resulted in his not writing another word of fiction for 13 years, unless you count legal briefs.

In 1993, Rhoades' local newspaper, the Southern Pines, North Carolina, Pilot, apparently got tired of his snarky and sarcastic letters to the editor and asked him to write a weekly column. "Hey, smart guy," they said, "you think this is so easy, you try it!" "Hey," he said, "how hard could it be?" These proved to be the very words that have gotten him in more trouble than any others in his life, except maybe "hey, gorgeous, can I buy you a drink?"

After a few years and an award for the column from the North Carolina Press Association, the same editor grudgingly allowed as how Rhoades wasn't a complete hack after all, and suggested he write a novel. "Hey," he said, "how hard can it be?" The answer, as it turns out, was "very hard indeed."

He wrote a novel. It sank like a stone. For some inexplicable reason, he wrote another. That one, THE DEVIL'S RIGHT HAND, was picked up by St. Martin's Minotaur and was nominated for the Shamus Award for Best First P.I. novel. Two more Jack Keller novels followed, as well as a stand-alone, BREAKING COVER.

In 2010, Rhoades looked at the world of e-publishing after seeing the success several friends were having with it. "Hey, he said, "how hard..." --well, you get the idea. After a couple of missteps, his backlist is now available for Kindle, as well as his e-published novels STORM SURGE, LAWYERS GUNS AND MONEY, and GALLOWS POLE.

Rhoades lives, writes, and practices law in Carthage, North Carolina, where he does not usually refer to himself in the third person.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fast-paced action, April 9, 2005

By 

Jerry Saperstein (Evanston, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Devil's Right Hand (Jack Keller) (Hardcover)

Jack Keller is a bounty hunter. He's looking for a bail jumper. The bail jumper, not exactly a bright bulb, intends to rob an old man . . . and ends up murdering him along with his dim-witted cousin.

Keller has some psychological baggage of his own, which actually gets in the way of the story at times.

But Keller's pursuit of the criminals is what makes the novel a page turner. The action is fast, furious and plausible for the most part. On the whole, a fun book.

Jerry

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The unconventional adventures of bounty hunter Jack Keller, March 15, 2005

By 

Henry W. Wagner (Rockaway, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Devil's Right Hand (Jack Keller) (Hardcover)

Standing at the center of this bruising novel is the relentless bounty hunter Jack Keller, a Gulf war veteran struggling with post-traumatic stress syndrome. Keller is pursuing DeWayne Puryear, who skipped bail on a lesser charge shortly before killing Raymond and John Lee Oxendine's father during a robbery. Accompanied by his cousin Leonard, DeWayne goes on the lam. Unfortunately for them, however, they've incurred the wrath of the resourceful and tenacious Oxendine brothers, who seek revenge for their father's murder.

The hapless robbers take refuge in the home of DeWayne's sister Crystal, proceeding to squander most of the robbery money on drugs. One evening, Leonard answers the doorbell to find the Oxendines waiting outside. Right on the Oxendines' heels is Keller, who has also tracked the Puryears to their hideout. A vicious firefight breaks out, forever altering the lives of those involved. The remainder of the novel deals with the surviving parties' dogged pursuit of one another, some seeking a payday, others revenge. The chase is not without its interesting detours; the consequences and the final death toll won't become apparent until the final pages.

Rhoades knows how to keep an audience's attention, never stinting on the well-choreographed action. Surprising for a novel that relies so much on explosive set pieces, however, is that it doesn't neglect character development; each player is profoundly affected by the violence that surrounds them. The winning mix of pulse pounding action and intriguing central characters will have readers anxiously anticipating the author's next offering.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The intense beginning of a series: The Devil's Right Hand, August 16, 2005

By 

Kevin Tipple (Plano, Texas) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Devil's Right Hand (Jack Keller) (Hardcover)

Haunted by a nightmarish experience in Desert Storm and suffering post-traumatic stress disorder, Jack Keller is barely alive. Physically alive is one thing but his emotional life and his ability to connect with others is in strong jeopardy. For this self imposed loner and societal outcast, the only thing that keeps him going is the thrill of the hunt which results in the ultimate capture of his target. Work as a bounty hunter for H&H, a North Carolina bail bonds company keeps him working and alive, but it isn't much of a life, as he has not much passion for anything else. Other than Angela, the enigmatic owner of H&H who has her own very heavy load of emotional baggage and isn't yet ready to cross that line from employer to lover with Jack Keller.

Keller's personal life begins to change in an unlikely way when he goes on the hunt for a habitual criminal, Dewayne, whose only ability is incredible stupidity in regards to his crimes and extreme violence. Stupidity that most recently caused Dewayne to kill an elderly man in the course of robbing him for a small cash payroll of a few thousand dollars. Stupidity that caused the son's of the deceased man, Raymond and John Lee, to begin their own violent hunt for Dewayne. Both the sons and Keller have a good idea where Dewayne is headed. Keller needs him alive so that he can take care of the bond money because the Old West adage of bring them back dead or alive no longer works. Raymond and John Lee want Dewayne dead and don't care who gets hurt in the process.

Throw in a violent out of control cop, a love interest in an unlikely place, and a few other story ingredients and the result is a fast paced intense read from start to finish. Told through constantly shifting point of view, this tale is part mystery, part thriller, and all intense. The story unravels before the reader's eyes with sufficient plot twists and turns to keep one guessing to the very last page. Through it all is the complex and multi-faceted character of Jack Keller, a man prone to violence who might like it just a little too much but at the same time is aware not only of his faults, but that sometimes, extreme violence is the only answer.

Kevin R. Tipple © 2005