Bounty hunter Jack Keller faces his most dangerous and sadistic enemy yet in this explosive Southern thriller
Jack Keller works in fugitive apprehension, and never feels more alive than when he's hunting down a skip. But when a young girl goes missing, and Keller finds out that the father is an AWOL member of the army's elite Delta Force, he knows immediately that this case will be anything but fun and games.
Keller is a Gulf War vet who knows his way around the Army's red tape, but the psychological scars from his experiences in the gulf have only just started to recede enough for him to live and love again. No one is sure how taking on the kidnapping case will affect him, least of all his girlfriend Marie, who's counting on Jack's recovery if they are going to have any future together. But a young girl's life hangs in the balance, and a shadowy group of missing Delta commandos seems to be the key to finding her. For Jack Keller, it's not an easy decision, but it's the only one he can make: consequences be damned, he's going after the girl.
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.
Anyone who can do basic math knows that Harriet Klausner can't possibly read all the books she "reviews." But for this one, she gets plot points wrong that are settled in chapter TWO, so there is no spoiler alert reason to give a red herring. She says Keller must rescue a little girl from her father, but the Delta Force dad is dead early in the book, in fact we see him being tortured by the bad guy in chapter ONE, so she couldn't have read much. She completely mischaracterizes his partners, too. And as for the political agenda she tries to impose on the story she doesn't know...
At least she got the star rating right. Dusty Rhoades is better than Lee Child, and could be as good as Stephen Hunter if he keeps this up. This is a can't catch your breath thriller with really good characters, so good in fact, that most of the good guys-- and guys trying to be good guys again-- are more interesting than the bloodthirsty killer.
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The third Jack Keller novel ups the ante on all levels. Action, villains, relationships. The villain this time is a South African killer on the trail of a fortune that slipped through his fingers in Afghanistan. No one or anything will stand in his way. Except Jack Keller. The added plus of scenes along The Blue Ridge Parkway in the North Carolina mountains, an area I have familiarity with, makes for a satisfying novel of suspense. The ending was totally unexpected, but seemed appropriate. I liked the dropping of a number of suspense writers names as FBI agents. Try this one. You will enjoy it.
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There is one thing that really disappointed me about this book. I just couldn't feel the locations. Being a resident of North Carolina and having spent a generous amount of time in the locations used I expected more. I don't feel that Rhoades ever used the geography and scenery to its full extent.
Rhoades is a good writer. I just feel that he never pushes for his full potential in this book. He never introduces anything new or grows his characters. I honestly felt like there was nothing new here. To make matters worse, it seems like Rhoades cranks up the testosterone level to hide the lack of insight in to his characters.
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