This is the second of three books featuring Deaver’s new character, Colter Shaw. I wasn’t aware that it was a sequel until searching for other books with the same character, so it’s definitely readable out of order. Having said that, there were references to Shaw’s father and his untimely death – that seems to be part of the longer narrative that spans the series.
Colter Shaw is the thinking man’s bounty hunter – he doesn’t just round up (and sometimes kill) fugitives, he approaches the contracts with humanity. In fact, his business manager urges him to be more ruthless, while Shaw is seen to be more focussed on doing the right thing than chasing the money. In this outing, doing the right thing involves investigating the mysterious suicide by one of his bounty targets. The man jumps from a clifftop without fear and with no little serenity. Shaw believes there’s something odd going on within the organisation where the man has spent the preceding months, immersed in new-age rituals and beliefs. So he signs up for a season of self-improvement himself, hoping to uncover the truth.
Shaw is a capable operator, trained by his father in a host of rules by which to hunt and evade capture. He’s also a decent fighter – but it’s his mentality that intriguing. Who, other than Jack Reacher, would put himself into harm’s way just because something didn’t seem right?
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