Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Gray Retribution by Alan McDermott Keeps Series Exciting, Compelling!


He screamed.
"Tom!"
Gray  was immediately awake. His wife looked down at him
and despite the poor light, he could see concern etched on
her face. "Same Dream?" Vick asked, caressing his face.
Gray nodded. The same dream he'd been having for a year,
ever since his friend had been good enough to disclose
everything MI5 had on the virus Gray had been exposed to
sixteen months earlier.
~~~




Gray Retribution:
A Tom Gray Novel



September 30 2013
Tom Gray stared at himself in the mirror and wondered where the years had gone. Although his fortieth birthday was a year away, he already had a few flecks of gray peppering the light brown hair on his temples, and the plastic surgery he'd gone through hadn't done anything to make him look younger.
But then,  that hadn't been the intention...The more recent sessions spent under the knife had sought to undo what James Farrar had done to him just after the explosion two years earlier.
At least his six-foot-frame remained hard and fit, the result of his daily runs and his wife's cooking. Gray noticed a piece of fluff on his eyebrows and swatted at it, and was shocked to see half the hairs fall into the sink. The bald area above his eye appeared bruised, and as he touched it the skin came off, revealing the bone above his eye socket. He was staring at the lump of flesh between his fingers when the door opened and his son walked in. "Daddy, what's this?"
~~~






By Alan McDermott

Our hero is home both recuperating and enjoying his new baby girl. He is managing director of Viking Security services which provided bodyguards and combat training around the world, so after finishing a run and finding his two girls asleep, he went on to his office. Without going into details of what he had gotten into several years ago, he realized that he was losing clients, and it was probably because nobody wanted to work with him... Still, when his uncle called regarding a group of criminals who were requiring "protection payments" from his new grocery store, Tom had immediately checked it out and was there when they came to collect... They were demanding $300 a week! An impossible sum for a small grocer just getting started! 
Sese Obi drove into the camp just as the sun
reached its zenith and his men immediately
dropped what they were doing and gathered near
his Land Rover. One of his lieutenants Baako,
rushed to open the door and Obi climbed out of
the vehicle...
When he turned to face them, he could see that
he had their complete attention...
He got straight to the point.
"The Agbi people think they can take our land
and we'll just sit and accept it. But they are
wrong!"
A huge roar erupted from the crowd, and
he savored the moment.
~~~








About the same time, Tom gets word that his training consultants located near Malundi could be caught right in the middle of trouble! In fact, Nafari Cisse. the son of one of the soldiers with whom they are working has been taken! Unfortunately, Nafari is not the first child who has been stolen and taken to a camp to learn how to shoot and kill, all the while being given whoonga to become addicted and not eat much! At the same time they are being brainwashed that there is nobody for them anymore--that  there are no parents
"My father is..."
When the slap landed it felt like the skin had been
 torn from Nafari's face
"You have no father!" the guard shouted. He let
the news sink in for a few seconds.
"Who is your mother?"
Nafari was still reeling from the blow; and the
question was repeated.
"I...my mother..."
Another blow hits "You have no mother."
Nafari dropped the cigarette and the guard retrieved
it, forcing it into the boy's mouth.
"More!"
~~~

The men gathered round as he explained how they worked.
And Hansi took the opportunity to ease away from Smart
on a pretence of getting a better view of the devices.
Okeke took his place, putting his head close to Smart's ear.
"Don't be hard on him, Mister Len. He lost a son recently.
"Sorry to hear that."
Okeke nodded. "It happens more and more these days. His son
went to school in the next village and never came home. He was
only twelve.
"That's a shame," Smart said, suddenly feeling sorry for the man. Shouldn't he be out looking for him?"
"They are never found. In the last six months, eight boys have vanished from his village alone. It is happening all over...

When Tom got the word that his men were in trouble, he wanted to act immediately to get them out. But his wife asked that he not get involved this time--that he had others who could take care of it. But his loyalty to them was based upon their having saved both his and his wife's life. Now he couldn't not respond when they needed help!

But Tom's men also didn't want to leave and just let their new soldiers out on their own...and, of course, the soldiers didn't want to leave while the villagers would be tortured and killed...

So, you know what happened, right? They planned how to get the villagers out as well! And, of course, you know that is easier said than done. They did have a secret weapon in their sentinels. These were automatic weapons that could shoot live ammunition...while the trainers had only used blanks. But Tom was working with those who could help across the world and was pulling together ways to meet and take everybody out... What actually happened was much more scary and exciting...

In the meantime, those who owned the protection services for the local shops and markets knew they would have to make an example of the grocery store owners who had not yet been willing to pay... They planned it so that it would look like an accident...

If I had the time, I would surely go back and read from the first book in this series. This is the fourth book and it seems that nothing could top this one! I had earlier read about the child armies being developed in Africa, but this book provided many more details of what might be happening. Thankfully, there are always those who will fight the monsters who hurt children in this way... But Tom discovers that it's not just in Africa that criminals are willing to kill...whoever happens to be in the way...  

This series could easily end on this high note of excitement, terror and yet...hope and help...Do check this out. There was some reference to what had occurred earlier in the series, but this book can definitely stand without having read earlier stories.  Got to make this highly recommended!


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About the Author

Alan McDermott is a husband, father to beautiful twin girls and a software developer from the south of England. Born in West Germany of Scottish parents, Alan spent his early years moving from town to town as his father was posted to different Army units around the United Kingdom. Alan had a number of jobs after leaving school, including working on a cruise ship in Hong Kong and Singapore, where he met his wife. Since 2005 he has been working as a software developer and currently creates clinical applications for the National Health Service. Alan’s writing career began in 2011 and the action thriller Gray Justice was his first full-length novel.

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