Mel Odom, Paid in Blood

Paid in Blood

Mel Odom

Tyndale, 2006, $13.99, 432pp.

ISBN: 1414303068

Though somewhat immune to murder having been a Naval Criminal Investigative Services Agent for a few years, in Wilmington, North Carolina, Commander Will Coburn sadly looks at the corpse of NCIS Chief Petty Officer Helen Swafford, who was on her own unauthorized hook when her throat was slashed. As he wonders what she was involved in, Will and his team (Maggie Foley, Shel McHenry, Estrella Montoya, Dr. Nita Tomlinson, and Frank Billings) begin tracking clues involving the illegal trafficking of military weapons being sold to rogue states and terrorist groups. Their efforts lead them to Chainae, Republic of Korea, where they spy on a suspected weapons dealer.

However, to their shock and chagrin, hooligans working for a drug dealer abduct their prime suspect. When they finally catch up to the kidnappers and their victim, the NCIS team find corpses only, as if someone knows what they are doing and wiped out the evidence. The Navy takes control of the body of their prime suspect, only to have it snatched from them, leaving behind a dead NCIS agent. With no time to mend fences at home, though each, except perhaps Frank, face personal crisis, the unit finds clues in South Korea, Colombia, Russia, and the Middle East, but how drug dealers and weapons sellers converge, as their commodity markets are so different remains just out of reach.

Though the investigation turns over the top with global repercussions, Mel Odom's fine NCIS thriller is an exciting tale starring real people as the Navy investigators. Each of the team members has issues back home with family members or with themselves, as they struggle with personal demons while battling an insidious unknown enemy who may be connecting two major illegal commodity selling groups into a super power. Fans will enjoy observing the dedicated team members follow the clues in North Carolina and overseas, trying to save the big world while their little world teeters on the brink of implosion.