The Ragged End of Nowhere
Roy Chaney
Minotaur, Nov 10 2009, $24.99
ISBN: 9780312582531

Ronnie Hagan has just returned home to Las Vegas after spending time with the French Foreign Legion. However, his welcome home is a bullet to the head near Hoover Dam. His brother Bodo, a CIA Agent stationed in Germany, returns home for the first time in a decade to learn the truth about his sibling's execution.

Bodo soon learns his brother came home with a wooden artifact the "Dead man's Hand" that looks worthless yet apparently is priceless as several people want it. The operative wonders who would kill to possesses it and soon concludes a horde of nasty looking punks. As police detective John McGrath tells him to butt out, Bodo keeps digging, but the evidence makes no sense.

The Hagan brothers are a strong pair as the insight into Ronnie is through a back story that includes his French Foreign Legion service, which makes him the more fascinating but also slows down the pace; ironically the readers get to know his motivations though dead rather than his living sibling. The rest of cast consists mostly of predators, who the CIA operative has to interrogate using Chaneyian enhanced techniques. Although the suspense is limited by the look back at Ronnie's life, fans will enjoy Roy Chaney's solid thriller.

Harriet Klausner