Strong Enough to Die: A Caitlin Strong Novel [Hardcover]

Jon Land (Author)

Book Description

Series: Caitlin Strong | Publication Date: May 12, 2009

Caitlin Strong is a fifth-generation Texas Ranger, proud to wear the badge of her father and grandfather—until a deadly shoot-out along the Mexican border causes her to question her calling.

Five years later, Caitlin is still trying to purge herself of guilt from the day that ended her Ranger career. But a shattering discovery will reopen old wounds, and Caitlin’s renewed investigation into the truth behind the bloody desert firefight uncovers a terrifying plot that reaches into every home and threatens the very core of the country.

Her only hope for success—and survival—is to team up with Cort Wesley Masters, a deadly outlaw who has every reason to want her dead. But he also holds the key to the truth she desperately seeks in the anguished brain of an amnesiac torture victim.

Caitlin’s tormented quest for redemption takes her to a dark world, ranging from Washington to Bahrain to the wastelands of Mexico, as she finds that the strength to live comes from learning how to die.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Land (The Seven Sins) introduces a tough original heroine, Caitlin Strong, a fifth-generation Texas Ranger, in the first of what hopefully will be a long crime series. Hyperpatriot Harmon Delladonne runs MacArthur-Rain, a corporation with tentacles in all areas of the U.S. government's security apparatus. Delladonne's project Fire Arrow threatens both the privacy of all Americans and their very lives. Strong, the only gun-totin' female in the legendary Texas Rangers, stumbles onto this plot when she finds her supposedly dead husband, Peter Goodwin, in an institution devoted to treating torture victims. She teams with a dangerous former foe, Cort Wesley Masters, to fight not only Delladonne but Emiliato Valdez Garza, the phantomlike head of the Mexican mafia, and the giant Guillermo Paz, a Delladonne henchman who ponders Kierkegaard while slaying his many enemies. The revelations are constant, the characters compelling and the action fast and furious. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Former Texas Ranger Caitlan Strong changed careers after she was wounded in a shootout and after her husband was reported dead in Iraq. Now she’s a psychological therapist in San Antonio, and her first patient is her husband! Admitted as a John Doe, he has no grasp on reality. Then the monolithic security firm for which he worked decides to kill him, fearing that he may reveal the company’s plans to insinuate itself into American lives. Caitlan thwarts the attempt to kill Peter, with an assist from Cort Wesley Masters, a former Mob hit man who had intended to kill Caitlan just as the baddies arrived to kill Peter. Naturally, an alliance is formed between Caitlan and Masters, who take on the security firm. It’s easy to knock this over-the-top thriller: it has a preposterous plot, cartoonish villains, and a body count to equal the sum of Die Hard and Rambo. Yet readers will be loath to set it down for a minute. Caitlan is a female Spenser, and Masters is a surprisingly complex composite of every assassin-with-a-conscience you’ve ever met in a crime novel. Flawed but incredibly energetic and readable. --Wes Lukowsky

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Forge Books; First Edition edition (May 12, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765312581
• ISBN-13: 978-0765312587
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (59 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #701,838 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A story with Texas hot sauce, April 20, 2009

By 

Lost In Kansas "James Corbett" (Arkansas City KS) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Strong Enough to Die: A Caitlin Strong Novel (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

While I was trying to earn an honest dollar, I spent 10 years in South Texas. I lived in a small town of 2300 south of San Antonio. While I was there I met two Texas Rangers. I can still see them with the big grey Stetson and a .45 on their belt with their star on the other side. I got to know them and I have to say that Mr. Land is dead on with his ficticous Texas Rangers, right down to the way they talk. In Texas, the two most feared men are the game wardens and the Texas Rangers. The city of San Antonio has played a big part in my life and here too Mr. Land is spot on with his discriptions of the city.

Now the first thing you have to get use to is that this book is not one of Oprah's book of the month winners. No, this is a lazy afternoon read. A book you can pick up and read and then set down go about your business and pick it up later type of book. If you accept this, then you have terrific read.

Let's do this the easy way:
You have one Ranger who is a woman. Who has emotional issues and baggage. Whoa! Some people say that this character could easily be a man. NO WAY! The lady ranger has a profound affect on the two bad guys that a man could not have. Besides the sex scenes would be really weird.

Next you have a Texas Outlaw who is a killer,but wants to change.

You have a crazed killer, Paz, who reads Kierkegaard and also is trying to find himself.

Finally you have a very very bad man with no redeeming qualities.

Let's see, yea that is about right. The plot starts out good and then turns into way out sifi with the use of lasers as murder weapons.

The strong point of this book is the action. Here the moto is simple: shoot straight and kill as many of the f___kers as possible. All in the name of frontier justice. The ending battle is writen for the movie that this book will make. Talk about over the top! The "good" guys can't miss and the bad guys can't hit the side of a barn. But what the hell.. it is entertaining.

The weak area is the plot and "oh this just happened" and this "just sort of appeared" and "out of the blue this happened." Well you get the point.
Look this is a fun book and it is not boring and the atmosphere is great.

Time out! There is one point that I have to complain about and those of you who may have read some of my reviews know I know my guns. In the first chapter the lady ranger, about 5'8" and around 150-165 lbs, puts a wounded male ranger,about 6' and 180-190 lbs., on her back. The wound ranger is shooting his pistol around her ear, she is stumbling toward and SUV with a 12 gauge shotgun in ONE hand and a Mini 14 rifle in her other hand AND she is shooting both of these at the same time. NO WAY JOSE! I tried it and you can't do it.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Loud and strong, this book goes at it hard, April 18, 2009

By 

DWD "DWD's Reviews" (Indianapolis, IN) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Strong Enough to Die: A Caitlin Strong Novel (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

William Shatner once commented that the results of his directorial efforts in Star Trek V were "loud". One could easily say the same thing about Jon Land's "Strong Enough to Die."

"Strong Enough To Die" comes at you with a gunfight on the first page, has lots of gunfights throughout and ends up with guns and explosions as well.

Does it work?

Well, yeah.

This is not fine literature, mind you. It is loud, lock and load, over-the-top Texas Ranger action. There's some attempts at trying to tie in Bush administration anti-terrorist policies and discussions about living with the aftermath of violence but those get overwhelmed by the gunfire. But, that's okay because too much thinking about the internal incongruities of the text on these matters just spoils the fun.

It's the famed Texas Rangers and a bad guy who might be a good guy against the Mexican Mafia and an evil American super-corporation. Don't think too much, just enjoy the show.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well-Written, Enjoyable Thriller, May 23, 2009

By 

Julie (NJ United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Strong Enough to Die: A Caitlin Strong Novel (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

The accusations of those who have rated this story poorly are accurate, there are a large number of highly improbable scenes and coincidences that line up just so. Still, the story's good, dare I say strong enough to stand against naysayers? It read pretty smoothly, though the uncorrected proof still had a few typos they should iron out. This is by far one of the better books I've gotten out of the vine program.

Caitlin Strong's a likable character, appropriately named. Some will probably complain she could have been a man in most instances, and that's just because most people associate things like gun-toting and shooting as male things. (Right or wrong, it happens.) The book reads like the whole thing could have been one long, complicated video game. There's plenty of opportunities for the hero and heroine to get into and out of scraps, sometimes with words and sometimes with guns.

The strong language use is kept to a minimum, which maximizes its effect. I get tired of books that drop curse words almost as frequently as the word "and" becuase it loses all impact. Select use gives the words more meaning. Dialogue's decent and believable; the characters' voice have subtle but detectable differences. By far, the most noteworthy writing tool the author has in his arsenal is a keen sense of transitions. They are well done, so that the story weaves in and out like a tapestry of words.