J. D. Rhoades Safe and Sound

Safe and Sound

J. D. Rhoades

St. Martin's, Jul 2007, $23.95

ISBN: 9780312354893

The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina bounty hunter Jack Keller loves his work of capturing a skip because it enables him to concentrate on the present and near future rather than his haunting military past as a Gulf War vet. However, his latest case has nothing to do with a skip. In Hayland County attorney Tammy Healey visits Keller's girlfriend private investigator Marie Jones to hire her services. A Delta Force commando David Lundgren abducted his daughter Alyssa from the girl's mother Carly Fedder.

Keller works the military bureaucracy to find clues to the whereabouts of Lundgren; as expected that proves difficult as the Army refuses to say anything about its elite force even if a kidnapping occurred. However, as he struggles with the reminders of his service time and the aftermath rejection of mental health issues by the VA, he realizes Lundgren has vanished but is not considered AWOL. Other Delta Force members have also disappeared but how they tie back to Lundgren and Alyssa remains nebulous.

The third Jack Keller investigative thriller (see GOOD DAY IN HELL and THE DEVIL'S RIGHT HAND) is a fabulous tale with headline relevancy as the Defense Department and Veterans Affairs have finally recognized the mental health issues of returning soldiers as J.D. Rhodes has done with Keller. Keller's inquiries will entertain his fans as he is stonewalled every step of the way by the army. More of the atrocities he saw in the Gulf surface in this story. Fans will appreciate his latest efforts as he risks his life and sanity as he battles his ghosts, the military bureaucracy, and renegade Delta Force trained killers to try to rescue a little girl from her dad.

Harriet Klausner