Randall Krzak raises the bar of the thriller genre with Revenge, the action-packed second book in the Bruce and Smith series.
Javier retires from the Army and his despised desk job at the Pentagon. He lived for the action of working in the field, so as a civilian, he tries to build an international investigative agency called The Brusch Agency. Thanks to his connections from the military, he can do exactly the work he wants, with the people he chooses.
Krzak sets up this book meticulously, building conflicts in the first several chapters. Javier needs to apply for his concealed-carry permit and private investigator’s license while finding office space for his agency, but his plans are staggered as his condo is broken into and trashed. Despite his investigation and that of law enforcement, the culprit remains a mystery.
Despite a rough night on his slashed mattress, he focuses on business, getting his permit and license. When he starts receiving a series of threatening emails, he realizes the B and E job on his condo wasn’t random, and he enlists his friends and fellow Brusch Agency investigators to uncover this threat.
Krzak masterfully uses AJ, Javier’s romantic interest, to ramp up the heat as their relationship grows, but also the tension when her life is put on the line.
AJ helps Javier as a partner, and Krzak’s smart and sexy female lead can more than hold her own. She helps Javier find the new office building, and within a day, it’s his. He begins to build his team, with AJ first on the list, but she hasn’t yet committed to giving up her gig at the CIA.
The target on Javier’s back only gets bigger as his agency grows.
The Brusch Agency gets its first overseas client and job from the DEA, while juggling the threat to Javier.
Javier’s team, including Snakes from book one in the series, The Columbia Betrayal, works to uncover the details of Islamic State terrorist trainers who worked out of Mexico. They discover that the person seeking revenge on Javier was a survivor of the Mexico attack.
As they begin work on their mission in Bermuda for the DEA, Krzak shifts his plot into high gear.
The team starts to unravel the case, putting together names in the local drug mafia and discovering where the drugs are delivered.
Krzak deftly weaves between Javier and his team’s work on two investigations. All the while, Javier is growing closer to AJ, but as much as he wants to take their relationship to the next level, he can’t until he finishes these missions and resolves the danger to his life.
This thriller draws on the precision of a retired military author to build a world of international intrigue, one well-versed in international diplomacy and foreign military aid.
Krzak uses these details to create a fascinating novel. His characters will draw readers in with their development, and commitment to keeping one another alive. Lovers of Lee Child and Tom Clancy will appreciate Krzak’s world-building, the detailed scenarios, and the daring rescues put forth by his heroic characters.
The Goethe Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in post-1750s Historical Fiction. The Goethe Book Awards is a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs).
Crossing the Ford by Gail Hertzog opens in classic Western fashion: a train rolls in, carrying a stranger. Twenty-five-year-old Ruby knows, when she sees “that little lady” get off the train, that life in her rural Nevada town will never be the same.
“The toughest job you’ll ever love.” That was the original slogan for the Peace Corps, one that Christine Herbert found to be wholly true, as she shows in The Color of the Elephant, a journal of her time serving in Zambia from 2004 to 2006.
Dementia
The Chatelaine Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in Romance Fiction. The Chatelaine Book Awards is a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs).
