Looking For a Good Book

When I first began reviewing books in earnest for my current reviewing situation (as opposed to the late 1980’s when I reviewed books for West Coast Review of Books newspaper), I requested a lot of books from a lot of different publishers, trying to get my foot in the door. This book, Hard Road, was one of those early requests. I wasn’t much of a Thriller reader at the time, but it looked interesting and I was willing to give it a try. It was also a first book in a proposed series. Who knew, back then, that this would go on to be a a successful, currently fifteen book series?!

Jon Reznick is a ‘ghost.’ He’s a black-ops operative who technically doesn’t exist. Though he gets a paycheck from the U.S. government, there are very few people who know about him and his orders come from shadowy figures inside governmental walls.

Jon gets an order for a high-level hit that needs to look like a suicide. All in a day’s work for Reznick. But when he arrives at the correct location, the target is not the man he was expecting. He’s immediately on high alert, which is a good thing because the operation is clearly compromised and there are other hired killers now looking for both he and his target.

Reznick will need to draw on all his training and his best instincts as he sets out on the run from both the FBI and the terrorists looking to bring America to its knees. He also needs to keep his young daughter who’s being used as a pawn against him, safe while he can’t be there in person. Jon Reznick is the only person who knows the extent of the danger to America – and how to stop it.

I loved how author J. B. Turner jumps right into the action – getting Reznick off to a job. But we also immediately recognize Reznick as a black-ops person with a conscience – not just performing the action, but questioning what doesn’t seem ‘right.’ Which is immediately followed by intense action as Reznick, and the man he was initially sent to kill, have to escape a hotel harboring other killers. We see his resourcefulness and his skill. It’s really a great, memorable set-up.

And then it slows down. A lot.

Turner gets a bit long-winded in his descriptions and detail to things that we don’t need to know. It’s great if we’re seeing that Reznick has a keen eye  and uses that ability to keep himself safe, but it definitely doesn’t come across that way. There are just too many little things tossed in.  For instance, near the end, a doctor is attending to Reznick from a bullet wound. She says “You got lucky. The bullet narrowly missed the brachial artery. That’s the main artery that supplies blood to the arm and hand. That was a real close call, believe me.” Was the bit about the specific artery did, necessary? Isn’t “nearly missed an artery” enough for both Reznick and the reader to know that it was dangerous?

There’s also a bit of kitschy dialog (“Someone kidnaps my daughter and you ask if it is personal. What do you think?”) – it’s straight out of the pulps, which is probably appropriate because this is a very pulp-like thriller

The action picks up again in the last quarter of the book, which makes it fun again.  And since we start strong and end strong, it’s certainly worthy of some attention. I am curious to see how much Turner has grown as an author and if Reznick has grown as a character.

Looking for a good book? Hard Road by J. B. Turner introduces Jon Reznick, a black-ops operative with a conscience and great skill. The book starts and ends strong, but is much too slow in the middle.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

* * * * * *

Hard Road

author: J. B. Turner

series: Jon Reznick #1

publisher:  Exhibit A

ISBN:  9781909223462

paperback, 416 pages