Allegiance by Tom Abrahams

Jackson Quick was a bullied kid who struck back. But he toed the line, went to college, and tried to

 

find a calling only to job hop in his early 20’s. A college bud working for the state of Texas and manages to get him a gofer job in the Governor’s office to work on his re-election campaign.  And during a speech, the opponent is the victim of an assassination attempt, but survives.

The Governor takes a liking to Jackson and offers him an assignment that is a bit outside of his job duties. Jackson is to personally. When he makes his last delivery to a woman in Alaska, she opens accesses the iPod, but drops it when she stands. Jackson, trying to be the nice guy, picks it up and returns it then does what he is supposed to do. He leaves and returns to Texas.

But he did see the screen. And it contained a foreign bank name and a number, obviously an account number. And as soon as he gets back to Texas, his life takes a horrific turn. He is kidnapped and tortured by this older Brit who goes by The Saint. What does Jackson know? Who has he told?

Jackson takes the torture, reveals nothing because he knows nothing. The Saint then releases Jackson, but that doesn’t set him free. Paramilitary types are after him now. Looking for someone to turn to for help, Jackson approaches an investigative reporter from Houston and they start peeling back the layers of the onion taking them to an obscure research lab at Rice University to an observatory in far western Texas, and then back to Austin and Houston leaving a trail of bodies in his wake – Jackson turns out to be a formidable target; guess striking back to a bully has some carry over.

This is the first of a series of books about Jackson Quick. This is a well-named newcomer to the thriller genre as Abrahams presents this story in a breathless, rapid-

fire fashion narrative. Doubt this new character will challenge Jack Reacher on the charts, but it certainly is a good choice for to occupy the hours of a long trip. See West Coast Don's reviews of this book as well as its follow-up Allegiance Burned on the blog.

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