This author who has co-authored several books with James Patterson has, in my opinion, become a better writer than Patterson. This most recent book by Andrew is a turn of the page that I really hated to put down. Ty Hauck, a Hartford, Connecticut police lieutenant, returns in this action-packed and twisted tale. His daughter, Jessie, whom Hauck had seen occasionally since their divorce, was with him when they went into a convenience store to buy some snacks. While they were in line to pay, the bullets started coming from outside the store shattering the glass windows, all in the store, and also hit some of the customers as they launched themselves for cover. It was a bloody mess that left a dead man who turned out to be a federal prosecutor. Hauck did everything he could to help others, but his daughter came first. He had Hauck with minor injuries.
This started a large case that also involved local, district, state and federal criminal and law enforcement figures from all of these areas. The involvement became so deep and personal for Hauck that he didn’t know who to trust even in his own police force. His brother, Warren, who he hadn’t been related to for a few years, also got in on the act. The description of the action from the previous scene will make your heart race; Gross’s writing is so good. Hauck had a good view of the shooter and the truck he fired from, but nothing turned up in the files. The shop owner hadn’t seen much of it, but he was as helpful as possible to customers and the police.
When a connection to various other deaths in the region seemed evident, the search broadened and deepened. The casino on Indian land and its employees and management seemed too connected, but Ty’s boss warned him saying that it would be too dangerous to go into the operations of the casino and all the people involved in it. Ty wouldn’t take that for an answer and put himself in danger, as usual. When the federal prosecutor was suspected of taking money from the casino, his wife became even more upset because she knew her husband and knew that he could not get involved in such schemes.
Many in the area who came forward with information about the events that occurred during or after the shooting were threatened or disappeared. Despite Hauck’s warnings not to delve too deeply into this case, he was not the type of man who couldn’t do the job he was capable of, and he delved into the case and took more risks. Annie, a restaurant owner who was apparently harassed by the same area rioters, eventually became friends with Hauck. She was another person that the police had to try to protect.
I think I’ve told you enough about this tremendous story that you feel like you MUST go out and buy it. Trust me, you won’t be disappointed. Andrew Gross, please keep posting these stories. You have a talent that many well-known authors with long experience do not have.