Marshall Grade has been laying low in witness protection after quite spectacularly not doing so in American Blood, the previous novel in the Marshall Grade series. But when he finds out U.S. Marshal Lucas Cohen, his witness protection contact, was kidnapped by someone trying to find him, he decides he’s going to be the one doing the finding. And as we are now coming to expect the ensuing story is revealed by a swirl of characters. And as with American Blood the ethics of the situation gets wonderfully blurry. The ‘baddies’ have complex lives and often do bad things for good reasons, and the ‘goodies’? – well they are few and far between, Cohen is the closest thing to a good guy but the good deeds are few, and the one truly good Samaritan turn in this story is taken by one of the scariest of the criminal groups. Marshall’s Law tells us more about Marshall’s difficult past; possibly the roots of his ongoing OCD tendencies – trying to keep order in a messy world. And we meet a hapless ex-con with a dangerous brother and a feisty wife, a drug dealer who colours everything in his life the white of his product, a man with a yappy dog who has got into serious debt, and a crook who feels bad at using his sick mother’s Honda for illegal purposes so punishes himself by leaving the radio on her gospel channel as penance: “Yeah, I’ve done some bad shit, but at least I left the radio on your station.” We also have characters from American Blood: Cohen the U.S. Marshal and of course somewhere is the Asaro family – the target of Marshall’s blown undercover job that landed him in WITSEC. The plot is complex and clever and unwinds slowly through to the explosive ending. And what is wonderful about Marshall’s Law is that it is an action-packed thriller that you want to read like a piece of literary fiction; savouring the writing as you go. The scenes are described in exquisite detail and the noir-ish tone hits just right. I wanted to know how all the characters and threads of the story fitted together, but at the same time didn’t want the book to end. Roll on the next installment!
-
Archives
- December 2022
- November 2022
- October 2022
- September 2022
- July 2022
- June 2022
- May 2022
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- October 2019
- September 2019
- August 2019
- July 2019
- June 2019
- May 2019
- April 2019
- March 2019
- February 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- October 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018
- June 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
-
Meta