Customer Reviews

Safe and Sound

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

That's how I was when I finished this book. I couldn't put it down, and ended up staying up way past my bedtime. Others have covered some of the plot points, so I won't repeat them here. I like Jack, and I worry about him. That's how real he's become to me. While I thoroughly enjoyed 'Breaking Cover', what I really want is more Jack!

Good book, thrilling, lots of adventure, and seemingly more intelligent then the character of John Rambo, but their was too much similarity between the characters, to be truly original. However, if you like the action packed bravado that their characters offer (and I do) then this is another book to add to the list.

I've been looking for a decent series since I stopped reading Spenser, and this is it. Read the first Keller, and was hesitant about the 2nd and now the 3rd, but in every one Rhoades has kept it up, kept Keller interesting, kept the past story as fascinating as the present, and moves everything along at a pace that won't let me put the book down. I've got my husband hooked on them, as well as my grandfather, and everyone I get to read them thanks me.

I am ready for the 4th; bring it on, Rhoades!

J.D. Rhodes has written an action packed novel based in the North Carolina Blue Ridge mountains. Well written and good character development, this book will keep your attnetion throughout. I recommend.

"Safe and Sound" is the third mystery novel from the pen of J.D. Rhoades, Shamus-award nominated author of Good Day in Hell (Jack Keller Series). I read it as a selection of the local Wilmington, North Carolina Library Mystery Book Club, and, not too surprisingly, I guess, it is both written by a resident of the state, and set in, North Carolina - its protagonist even lives in Wilmington, N.C. I am, however, surprised to find a reviewer referring to it as "redneck noir,"whatever that might be. But casting my mind back to another recent book club assignment, at a minimum, it seems to mean written by an author who calls himself only by the initials of his first names, and set in the mountainous western part of the state, among people often denigrated as rednecks, hillbillies, and so forth. A lone wolf detective who knows his way around a shotgun. Also, a high level of violence: thankfully, not so much in this book; but, in that other recent book club assignment, much of it directed against blameless animals.

Whatever, Rhoades is an entirely competent author. Things move quickly; the plot's serviceable, as is the dialog, the narrative and nature writing. "Safe" is a good, quick read, interesting enough to keep the pages turning. Characters are not particularly original, nor deeply-enough drawn to stand on their own, but they'll do. There was a rash of Boer South African villains during the 1990's, which I thought had run its course, but we've another such here, DeGroot,and he sure is nasty. The macguffin, as the late great Alfred Hitchcock called it, or plot device that keeps the wheels rolling, that which everyone is chasing, is a pretty modern, contemporary, and original idea. And our detective, Jack Keller, another haunted veteran working as a bounty hunter, is at least haunted by the relatively fresh Gulf War. But, of course, he's called to idealistic action when a young girl goes missing, and he finds out that her father is an AWOL member of the army's elite Delta Force. Redneck noir? Okay.

If you are a J.D. Rhoades fan, or even if you have yet to discover him, run, don't walk, to your nearest bookstore for a copy of "Safe And Sound"--it is that good! I have now read all of Rhoades' novels including his latest, "Breaking Cover", and each one gets better and better as he settles into his grab-the reader-by-the-throat breakneck style.

In this third outing for bounty hunter Jack Keller, ex-Gulf War vet still carrying heavy baggage from his wartime experiences, a search for a missing (kidnapped?) child initiates an adventure that leads Keller into violent brushes with death and forces him to confront the dark and ugly recesses of his war damaged psyche.

Keller must deal with military bureaucracy, red herrings galore, AWOL Delta Force operatives who may or may not be friendlies, and one of the most diabolical villians this reader has come across in a long time. DeGroot is a conscienceless South African mercenary who will let nothing stand in the way of recovering the "key" to a multi million dollar stash. He resorts to torture, kidnapping, murder, and enough general evilness to bring the reader to the point of wishing for his prolonged, painful death. And, of course, he and Keller ultimately face-off in a deadly confrontation that has unexpected results for Keller and those he loves.

Rhoades writes at a breath defying pace that kept me absolutely glued to the book for extensive segments. His plotting is tight but it is his characters who are so interesting and believable (even the bad guys) that readers will find themselves carried along by their actions and narrative as much as by the plot pacing.

I now count Jack Keller among my must read protagonists that include Jack Reacher, Bob Lee Swagger, Doc Ford, and Dave Robicheaux. If you are a fan of the action thriller genre represented by Child, Hunter, Burke, and White, you owe it to yourself to explore the works of J.D. Rhoades and his signiture character, Jack Keller.

SAFE AND SOUND, J.D. Rhoades's third Jack Keller novel, begins with a nightmare scenario. Remember that beginning. It's but a premonition of what is to come in one of the darkest --- and best --- novels of 2007.

Keller's emotions have always trolled out where the buses don't run, and he finds himself slipping deeper and deeper into dark territory in SAFE AND SOUND. He is in the process of attempting to put a relationship together with ex-policewoman Marie Jones. Running a private investigation agency, Jones accepts a case that will have implications reaching far beyond its expected boundaries. She agrees to trace the whereabouts of David Lundgren, an Army sergeant who has absconded with his young daughter.

Keller becomes involved in the search, quickly surmising that Lundgren has ties to the special ops community. Not even the Army, however, knows where Lundgren is; he has, in fact, fallen afoul of DeGroot, a dark force of nature skilled in the ways of the arts of interrogation and murder. DeGroot is on a trail that began in the mountains of Afghanistan and will end in the mountains of North Carolina. His trail will intersect with Keller's, with both men leaving --- and bringing --- death and destruction upon friend and foe alike with steel-edged certainty.

More than Keller's happiness hangs in the balance; his sanity, already teetering on a fine edge, may well be lost to the abyss. And Jones, heretofore the shelter in the storm of Keller's emotions, is in the path of both men.

Rhoades has a fine sense of irony that runs deep and true through SAFE AND SOUND, beginning with the title and continuing all the way to the very last page. The author's narrative, which reads much like that of Dashiell Hammett, is strong, stark and sure, just like his plot. One never gets lost, but one is never safe, either. This is a work of quality that hints of even greater things to come.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub