Saturday, November 30, 2019

Trained to Hunt by Simon Gervais

Pierce Hunt has been fired by the DEA (In the previous book). He went off the rails in response to a cartel's kidnapping his daughter and her friend. Despite a successful resolution, his daughter is still seriously shook up. Doesn't help that Hunt was helped out by the daughter of the Garcia cartel's boss.

Hunt and Anna Garcia have since become an item as she makes the steady move to legitimize the Garcia's business. Some underlings, still loyal to daddy Garcia's criminal ways, don't like the direction taken by Anna and are plotting to return things to the way they were. And they have a new product. A heroin-derivative that promises performance enhancing effects. Local Florida high school football players are turning up critically incapacitated or dead. Including the star QB of the high school where Hunt's daughter attends.

Hunt and his team weren't unemployed for long. As soon as the President demanded Hunt's head (previous book), the DEA quietly hired the team as contractors. Tracing that heroin-derivative back to Afghanistan takes Hunt's team to the small villages that is the source of the unique variant of poppy. Anna is dealing with her disloyal younger brother who is trying to kill her. When it turns out that the old Garcia distribution network is where this new drug has hit Florida, the DEA then tells her to stop the subversive network or all previously promised protections will cease immediately.  After Afghanistan, Hunt heads back to the US before being inserted into Venezuela before finally returning back to Tampa to help Anna deal with her brother.

Gervais' reputation is that of a quality thriller/action author whose pre-literary life dealt with the military, intelligence, and law enforcement. He knows of what he writes. Earlier books of his have been reviewed here. What ensues is a highly believable and realistic presentation of the investigation and subsequent battles. Good old testosterone-based thriller. Doubt many women will pick this up. Need a suggestion for a holiday gift for the (male) reader in your life? This would be a good place to start.

Available November 2019.

East Coast Don

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