Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Description:
“All that glitters is not good.
Al Quinn’s plans to live a quiet retired life are shattered when
trespassers begin encroaching on his lakeside property at night with
flashlights and a metal detector.
First, there are two men, then four, then six showing up almost every
evening on Al’s land. Some of them are armed and willing to fire their weapons.
Al has no idea what’s motivating the unwelcome visitors. But they soon realize
their lives are being threatened by some dangerous men.
Sheriff Clayton makes matters worse by asking for Al’s help on a
different matter. With an election coming, two women are getting ready to claim
that thirty years ago, Clayton went too far with them when they were underage
Girl Scouts. Clayton swears he’s innocent, so Al agrees to look into the
situation.”
Author:
The winner of multiple awards, Russ Hall has more than twenty
published books that include mysteries, thrillers, westerns, poetry, and
nonfiction. Hall lives near Austin, Texas.
Appraisal:
I’ve read multiple books in the Al Quinn series and like the
characters. Yeah, that the star and I share a name (not to mention his infant
nephew, Little Al), so that might give him an advantage in winning me over. But
I’m always eager to see what their latest adventures are. Having spent a bit of
time in Austin over the years I also enjoy how when Al mentions he’s in a
certain part of town and what its like, I can easily picture it, knowing for
example that the southeast near the airport isn’t a great area or picturing the
area to the northwest of the city where Al Quinn’s family lives takes me right
there.
But along with the setting and the characters we also have the story,
what’s happening to the characters in the setting. Who was doing what was
mostly not a mystery to the reader, we knew that most of the way for the big
mystery, who are the armed men that keep sneaking onto Al’s property and why
were they doing this. But how it is going to turn out kept me involved. There
was a bit of a mystery around Sheriff Clayton and whether Al would be able to
prove what the Sheriff was being accused of was untrue, but even there we knew
the answer and so there was more thriller than mystery. However, not knowing
how it was going to shake out and whether Al and his family was going to get
through it all okay, really pulled me into the story. Even among the bad guys,
who we get to know and understand a bit, there are some the reader isn’t going
to view in the same light as others, so you’re pulling for some to pay a larger
price than others. It all makes for an intense and interesting read and makes
me eager for the eleventh book in the series to see what Al and crew are up to
next.
Buy now
from: Amazon US Amazon UK
Format/Typo
Issues:
Although the version I read was an advance reviewer copy and I can’t
judge the final product in this area, I found no significant issues in the
reviewer version.
Rating: ****
Four Stars
Reviewed
by: BigAl
Approximate word count: 55=60,000 words
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