Genre:
Mystery/Thriller
Description:
“Trouble big as all hell.
Retired sheriff’s detective Al Quinn hasn’t spoken to his brother,
Maury, in twenty years. When Maury lands in the hospital under suspicious
circumstances, though, Al reluctantly abandons his quiet country seclusion to
look into the matter. A second attempt to take Maury out drives the brothers
back to Al’s lakeside home, where Al knows the territory, but they’re not alone
for long. ICE agents demand that Maury rat on his silent partner, city cop
Fergie Jergens comes investigating the murders of Maury’s lady friends, and
someone takes a match to Al’s house.
Al soon learns his problems are only getting started—his brother’s in
trouble on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. Caught in a ruthless power
struggle between the ICE and Los Zetas, a vicious Mexican mafia bent on
ascendancy, Al learns the hard way who he can trust—and who’s willing to do
whatever it takes to succeed.
With everything he loves on the line, Al will find out just how far
he’ll go to protect his own.”
Author:
The author of numerous books, from mystery to westerns and nonfiction
to poetry, Russ Hall is an award-winning author who currently lives in Austin.
For more, visit Hall’s website.
Appraisal:
To Hell
and Gone in Texas is a mystery that often reads like a police
procedural (to be expected with a retired sheriff’s detective as the
protagonist), yet it has much more going on. It’s a thriller, with several
intense scenes where the good guys aren’t sure they’ll make it through (this
sure isn’t a cozy mystery). There’s a hint of romance and it’s even spiked with
a touch of humor, as in this line near the beginning when the protagonist, Al
Quinn, is learning why Maury, his estranged brother, is in the hospital:
“Well,
the lab tests suggest he’d taken the equivalent of three Viagra tablets. Why do
you suppose he’d do that?”
“Ambitious?”
But what makes To Hell and Gone in Texas unique from a typical book in this genre
neighborhood is the secondary storyline about the relationship (or lack
thereof) between Al and Maury. We slowly learn what caused their falling out
and, to use a cliché, things aren’t always quite what they seem. An intense and
entertaining read.
FYI:
Some adult language.
Added for
Reprise Review: To Hell
and Gone in Texas was a nominee in the Mystery category for B&P 2015
Readers' Choice Awards. Original review ran December 2, 2014
Format/Typo
Issues:
Although the version I read was an advance reader copy and I can’t
judge the final product in this area, I found no significant issues in the
review version.
Rating:
***** Five Stars
Reviewed
by: BigAl
Approximate
word count: 65-70,000 words
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