After a sixteen-year-old girl witnesses a carjacking gone wrong, she is targeted by a crime boss who can’t have her testifying. The young carjacker/shooter was an inner-city lad with no record, so why is Forrester, the crime boss, so bothered about silencing the witness who saw the boy’s face?

 

The young witness comes forward to testify, despite her father’s concerns, and a hit man is ordered to take her out. That hit-man is Rico Sanders but Rico is not a cold killer, he only shoots people that deserve it, and never women or children. That leaves the second-choice killer, John D’Angelo, a rival of Rico’s, but he messes it up, shooting the girl’s father by mistake.

Paul Elliott - lawyer and friend of the deceased father – looks into the case. Paul and Rico have history and Rico owes him big time.

 

Rico is already looking for the man who attacked his prostitute girlfriend. The tension between Rico and D'Angelo mounts up, and it gets to the stage where only one of them can be left standing after the only man stopping D’Angelo from killing Rico is no longer a factor.

 

This Chicago set thriller is a pacy read, written with an edge and style that come from an author finding his voice. For me, this is even better than the first in the Pigeon-Blood Red series and it does work well as a stand-alone.

 

The role race plays is an important one, but it’s never over-egged, and the entertainment level is maintained throughout. Rico is a good character, a tough, physical presence, with plenty of nuances that make him original. Ed Duncan’s series will sweep up fans as it goes along.

 

 

 

About Ed Duncan

Ed Duncan is a graduate of Oberlin College and Northwestern University Law School. He was a partner at a national law firm in Cleveland, Ohio for many years. He currently lives outside of Cleveland, OH and is at work on the third installment in the Pigeon-Blood Red series. To learn more, go to http://eduncan.net/