"An action-packed police procedural thriller"
When Jack Vermillion returned home from serving his
country as a marine in Viet Nam, he came back with titanium
for a spine and the drive to become successful as a
civilian. Jack takes a tiny shipping firm, Black Water
Transit, and soon turns it into a multi-million dollar
giant. Perhaps because he has always been a workaholic,
Jack's only failure is his son, a resident of the Feds in
Lompoc Correctional Facility. Frantic to help his desperate son leave Lompoc where he
is choice meat, Jack finds the avenue when US Army (R)
Colonel Earl Pike hires Black Water to illegally ship a gun
collection to Mexico. Jack cuts a deal with the Feds to
move his son to a less secure facility in exchange for Pike
and his collection. However, law enforcement organizations
fail to communicate as New York State police officer
Cassandra Spandau goes after Pike at the same time. The
subsequent shoot-out between the AFT and NYPD leaves
several cops dead and everyone blaming Jack. BLACK WATER TRANSIT is an action-packed police
procedural thriller written with intelligence and wit. The
story line never allows the reader to blink as Carsten
Stroud paints a strong but gloomy look at a government's
dirty tricks and Lady Macbeth levels of ambition; no one in
authority seems to mind whether an innocent is grinded into
chopped meat. Dark humor adds to the edge yet also eases
some of the tensions of this powerful plot. Mr. Stroud
deserves sub-genre attention because this is one terrific
novel. Harriet Klausner
Reviewed by PNR Group Member
Posted August 3, 2001
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