Bear Logan escaped a life of espionage, severing ties with all but his adopted teen daughter, Mandy. But Mandy isn’t a regular teen. Her family dead or estranged, raised with Bear and Jack Noble. She knows how to survive.

Relocated to a sleepy town in upstate New York, Bear and Mandy try to blend in. But when Bear unearths human remains in their backyard, unwanted attention is soon thrust upon him.

Working with the local sheriff, Josephine McKinnon, they discover there’s more going on in the town than anyone realized. A long history of families falling sick and dying plagues the area. As the mystery unfolds, Bear, Mandy, and McKinnon find themselves in the middle of a decades old conspiracy and cover up. And Bear is their number one target.

Now, facing a corporate giant trying to correct the sins of its past, Bear must step out of the shadows to deliver justice for the town, even if it means his life.

IN A NUTSHELL
I’d call this a Cozy Thriller, an oxymoronic mix that was surprisingly entertaining. The Thriller parts were familiar but still engaging. The Cozy part meant that there was only a muted sense of threat, the bad guys were bad, the good guys were good, and the ending was as uncomplicated wish fulfilment. It was slickly written, taxing fun that kept me entertained.

L. T. Ryan has published more than 100 thrillers since 2012, many of them, like this one, he co-authored. This was my first book by him. It’s the first in a series that’s a spinoff of a spinoff, but that didn’t get in the way of my enjoyment of the book. I bought it because the first three books in the series were offere. as a bundled edition for £0.99.

Anyway, at a time when the world seems full of bad things, it was exactly the kind of distraction I was looking for. At less than 300 pages, it was the sort of book I could gulp down in a day. 

The plot was simple, linear and packed with well-written action scenes. Bear Logan is the typical black ops uber-competent guy trying unsuccessfully to retire to a quiet, below-the-radar life, except the quiet life he’s trying to make includes his adopted teen daughter, Mandy. Both Bear and Mandy seem to have complex, violence-strewn histories that I would probably have known about if I’d read the Jack Noble or Bear Logan series. Having Mandy in the mix added some plot twists that I enjoyed, and made the book feel a little more Young Adultish.

This is wish-fulfilment stuff, where you know the good guys are going to win in the end and that while violence may not be the answer to all problems, it’s always an important part of the solution. It was good, escapist fun. 

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