Roland Ford
is an ex-cop, ex-Marine, and now PI who specializes in finding people. He still mourns the loss of his wife, who
died when the plane she was piloting crashed into the Pacific Ocean. Roland now lives on a ranch/ retreat near San
Diego, landlord to a group of well-meaning and loyal misfits.
Roland latest
assignment is to find Clay Hickman, an air force veteran who has escaped from a
private mental hospital. Clay suffers
from PTSD and also carries the burdens of guilt and shame from the role he played in the
torture of Al Qaeda prisoners. Roland
soon learns that his client, Briggs Spencer, the owner of the mental hospital
from which Clay had escaped, is also Clay’s former commander in the air force… in
charge of the secret torture camp in Romania where Clay had served. Was Clay institutionalized for his mental health
or to cover up some insidious behavior by his captor?
Roland soon
learns that a young woman, Sequoia Baine helped Clay escape and has fallen in
love with him. She escorts Clay in his
quest to retrieve information that would expose Spencer. Yet, most allies that Clay and Sequoia locate
are being watched and some end up dead. At
one point Roland views video of water boarding and other horrendous methods of
torture that Spencer administered while in charge of the Romanian black ops
site. By making this video public, Clay
intends to ruin Spencer. Clay decrees, ‘My mission is to bring white fire to
Deimos’… Deimos being the Greek god of terror and Spencer’s nickname in
Romania. The more Roland learns the more
hesitant he becomes to turn Clay over to Spencer… even if he can find Clay
alive.
T. Jefferson Parker
has developed an excellent protagonist in Roland Ford. His grieving for his wife and serving as
landlord for a group of misfits exemplifies his compassion. However, I do not appreciate Parker’s flare
for the gruesome (too much description of torture for my taste), but the story
is well told and the characters are believable.
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