A seasoned author, this story is a fascinating and thrilling suspenseful novel. The Final Reckoning is one I highly recommend.

The story is about a killer who escapes vowing to get revenge for being put on death row. The intended victim, Tom McMurtrie.

As the killer gets closer the bodies start mounting. If you want to find out if Tom can save his family and friends then pick up a copy. It’s a great “must” read.

What an epic story with phenomenal characters! This was more like a good crime drama/thriller with lawyers as co-protagonists.

Good story, always really good in series full of good characters, plot and it keeps you turning the pages!!

Are you about to read this Robert Bailey book? You'd best put yourself on a strong exercise routine ... find a good cardio workout ... because this book will have your heart racing, your adrenaline pumping at high levels and you will want to be strong enough to finish.

JimBone Wheeler is about as bad a human being as a man can get. He's a killer without remorse and he'll delight in defiling a body - preferably before the victim is even dead. And JimBone has a grudge against Tom McMurtrie since it was Tom who put Wheeler behind bars.

The absolute worst kind of killer is one with charisma and is able to convince others to do his bidding. Wheeler has that charisma and elicits help from the prison nurse and manages his escape from the highly fortified prison, not long before his scheduled execution. And with JimBone Wheeler on the loose no one with even the most remote ties to McMurtie are safe. JimBone Wheeler doesn't want revenge ... he wants his 'reckoning.'

I am absolutely exhausted! This book is one breath-catching moment after another (though author Robert Bailey does manage to give us just enough pauses between high-anxiety moments to let us catch a breath before the next assault).

This might be the perfect legal thriller. Tom McMurtrie is about as clever and good as Wheeler is charismatic and bad. They are perfect foils for one another and this is their ultimate showdown. I think it is safe to say that neither will come through unscathed.

Bailey's characters are a unique combination of being a bit stereotypical and having a great sense of uniqueness (they stand out from one another quite well) and depth. It helps, I suspect, that I've read a few of Bailey's books now and I can follow the characters better.

The story is quite singularly focused. There's a brief little sub-plot but we don't spend much time with it. The JimBone Wheeler story is our only real focus here (Wheeler wouldn't have it any other way), but there's all we need, and more, with this single story. Wheeler's reckoning is all we know at the start - how he will achieve that is the question that keeps us going, and how McMurtrie will survive. <em>If</em> he survives. McMurtrie is likely on death's door (we experience a few doctor's visits with him) and it looks as though he'll take that knowledge and make of himself a sacrifice to save others.

This book is a phenomenal reading experience. It is a thrill ride that is made more exciting because the characters are created so solidly that we connect with them as if they really are our neighbors and friends.

Looking for a good book? The Final Reckoning by Robert Bailey is a tremendously exciting legal thriller that you really must read.

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

My latest review appeared in the June issue of Southern Literary Review, which selected the book as its June Read of the Month.

Reviewed by Claire Hamner Matturro

Robert Bailey pumps up the thrill in legal thriller with the fourth and final book in his series about Professor Thomas McMurtrie, or Tom, a law professor who returns to the active practice of law. While none of the four books in his series lacks action, The Final Reckoning is explosive and displays every element of a classic thriller: fast pacing, strong narrative, fear, misery, and transcendence. Bailey proves once more that he is a fine writer with an instinct for powerful, white-knuckle narrative.

In The Final Reckoning, Tom is terminally ill, but he must live long enough to save his family from annihilation at the hands of JimBone Wheeler, a natural predator and criminally insane killer whom Tom helped place on death row. When the madman escapes and comes after Tom and his kith and kin, the dangers—and violence—escalate quickly.

Though there is enough fast-paced drama to satisfy any thriller addict, The Final Reckoning is also tenderhearted. Tom’s family struggles to come to terms with his stage-four cancer diagnosis, even as he seeks meaning in his last days. The relationship between Tom and his grandson Jackson is front and center. Bailey, a family man and no stranger to the impact of cancer on a household, proves himself to be moving, sensitive, and evocative in his telling of a grandson coping with the coming death of a beloved grandparent.

While the grandfather-grandson relationship governs the domestic storyline, the bittersweet relationship between McMurtrie and The General adds both warm richness and unfulfilled longing. The General is the nickname for Helen, a woman prosecutor who could have been Tom’s love interest. There is a palpable yearning between the two in some memorable scenes that hint at what could have been were it not for Tom’s terminal disease and devotion to his long-dead wife. When Tom and Helen are in his bedroom gathering guns for a coming confrontation, for instance, they pause a moment and sit side-by-side on his bed.

Helen took a seat next to him and wrapped an arm around his waist. After a couple of seconds, Tom placed his own arm around Helen and pulled her close to him. When he heard her chuckle, he looked into her green eyes. “What could you possibly find funny in all this?” he asked.

“Nothing really,” she said, and her tone was sad with a hint of bitterness. “Just…this is the first time I’ve even been on your bed.”

Tom blinked his eyes, not knowing what to say.

Helen is a force to be reckoned with. Her sadness at losing her potential lover to cancer does not stop her from playing a hero’s role in the developing drama.

The basic plot about an escaped convict stalking a family might generate comparisons to the classic film Cape Fear (both versions), which features a convicted rapist who stalks a family for revenge. But The Final Reckoning has its own vivid, original storyline that’s more complex and intertwined, and gives readers a fresh look at terror and evil.

One would benefit from reading the earlier installments in this series in light of the references here to past events from those books. Yet Bailey supplies enough backstory that The Final Reckoning stands alone.

The Final Reckoning might be the most powerful of the four-book series, certainly it is the most violent and action-oriented, but it also has great heart. Tom’s friends and family naturally rally for him, putting themselves in grave danger. Bo, his best friend and a man with great pain and troubles of his own, and Rick Drake, Tom’s partner, all play essential roles in the developing crisis. Bo’s, The General’s and Rick’s devotion to Tom is a central theme in the story, as is Tom’s determination to save his friends and his family from a madman. The natural pathos in such a plot about a dying man battling great odds to save his family and friends is deftly handled by Bailey without tugging too hard at the heartstrings, yet he renders this story with such fine-tuned tenderness, one can’t help but be touched.

The Professor Tom McMurtrie series might now be over, but let us hope that Robert Bailey is using his considerable talents and imagination to write another series—and let’s hope Bo, The General, and Rick Drake come back in another book.
***


This review or one similar was posted at several sites, listed at the end.

"The Final Reckoning" offers a great story, fast pacing, strong narrative, action, fear and misery and transcendence. In other words, it is a great, classic thriller. Though more often than not categorized as a legal thriller, the book puts the action- thriller concept ahead of courtrooms and legal wrangling, though the story does have some of that too.

Bailey proves once more that he is one fine writer with a great instinct for telling a powerful story.

In "The Final Reckoning," Tom McMurtrie is a terminally ill man, but he must live long enough to save his family from destruction at the hands of JimBone Wheeler, a natural predator and criminally insane killer Tom helped place on death row. When the madman escapes and comes after Tom and his kith and kin, the dangers—and violence—escalate quickly. This book creates a tense, nail-biting manic need to keep reading and turning pages to find out what happens next, especially after JimBone makes his first successful revenge kill.

Though there is enough fast-paced action to satisfy any thriller addict, "The Final Reckoning" is also a tender-hearted family drama. Tom’s family struggles to come to terms with his stage four cancer diagnosis, even as the professor himself seeks meaning in his last days. There are some definite pangs of longing in scenes between Helen, aka "The General," a prosecutor who could have been Tom's lover if things had been different for them. And scenes with Tom and his grandson, Jackson, are moving, tender, sweet and never overplayed.

It is probably best to read the four books in the series in order. The books in the series are: The Professor, Between Black and White, and The Last Trial all published by Thomas & Mercer. All books in the series are excellent.
Reasons I enjoyed this book:

Action-packedGreat world buildingPage-turnerUnpredictable Wonderful characters


https://www.bookbub.com/reviews/3992605779

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39930184-the-final-reckoning

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-final-reckoning-robert-bailey/1128943912?ean=9781503902268#/

Also posted a review at Amazon.

I needed to have read the previous books.

I read this book on my Kindle and had no idea that it was the last in a series. Despite that, the storyline was easy to follow. James 'Jimbone' Wheeler has been on Death Row due to Tom McMurtrie and his family and close friends. Tom visits him for what he thinks is the last time and is told that Jimbone will kill all the people he holds dear in The Final Reckoning.

Tom is under a death sentence of his own, he has stage 4 cancer and knows he has not much longer to live but then discovers that Jimbone has managed to escape and is literally gunning for everyone that Tom loves with the help of his accomplice and lover Manny Heyes.

There are so many characters both friends and family in this book that I was struggling to work out who was who and what had happened in the previous books as one by one the death toll mounts ending in the kidnap of Tom’s precious grandson Jackson.

This is definitely a book where you needed to have read the others in the series because although I followed the plot, I felt no real sympathy with any of the characters, but this was because I had no idea of what had happened to them before.

I would be interested in reading more by this author as I enjoyed his style of writing, but it would need to be the first book in a series not the last!!


Dexter

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review

The Final Reckoning is a satisfying thriller and a real page turner. It is the conclusion to Bailey's series but it is not just a book that ties up loose ends. It is a thrilling story in itself though not a stand-alone. I am very sorry to see the series end and look forward to Bailey's next writing endeavors.

Book Review: The Final Reckoning (McMurtrie and Drake Legal Thrillers #4) by Robert Bailey

"Eat. Pray. Walk."

Tom McMurtrie, the A-side of the firm, is now battling Stage 4 lung cancer.

There will be no blustery courtroom legal skirmishes and machinations in this finale of the McMurtrie and Drake Legal Thriller series.

Instead, the author pours his heart, soul and spirituality into the book - and pens a legacy to his Dad - who, as we find out in the Author's Notes, died in 2017 of lung cancer, and "...loved westerns and war movies, 'Shoot-'em-ups', as he liked to call them".

And a shoot-'em-up does Robert Bailey deliver.

Along with the other part of his Dad's legacy - "...his determination to succeed in the face of adversity".

A fight to McMurtrie's very dying breathe.

Houses get burned down, many people die - near and dear to Bailey's beloved characters - McMurtrie, Rick Drake, Bocephus Haynes, General Lewis and others.

The stage is set with quite a story as only the author can create, the balance of intrigue and of meeting expectations, with loads of action for a compelling, unputdownable read.

Review based on an advance reading copy provided by NetGalley, Amazon Publishing and Thomas & Mercer.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a free copy of The Final Reckoning in exchange for my honest review. Robert Bailey finishes his McMurtrie series with all of the page-turning suspense as the first three novels. If you’re a fan of the series, this one is harder to read because by now you’ve gotten to know and love the characters enough that losing even one of them is rough. This one, to me, is the most brutal, and at times, I wasn’t sure if I could keep reading. However, that is the genius of Robert Bailey: he makes care what happens to all of the good guys and their families, and he makes us want to see the bad ones go down hard. Don’t read this without reading the other three first because you really need the build-up of the storylines for this to have its deserving impact. In his author’s note Bailey lets us know that there will be a new series coming, and I can’t wait to read it!

OK if you're going for some reading material where you'd better not think too much. Like:
Why do people keep helping a murderer who kills those who help him? Isn't it better to kill the murderer?
Why don't people take threats from a known murderer seriously and go away for a while?
Why does a "legal thriller" have several chapters on cancer screening?

The Tom McMurtrie series comes to a close with a highly-charged story of revenge and a dying man making a last-gasp effort to save all that he loves. A great read.

DP Lyle, award-winning author of the Jake Longly and Cain/Harper thriller series

The last book in a series is often used to simply tie together loose ends, but not this one. Yes, all things are pulled together from the three previous novels, but this book does much more... it inspires. Every day needs to be lived to its fullest, as The Professor and his friends so ably model when confronted by evil personified in JimBone Wheeler who is looking for a final reckoning.

Since the three previous books in this series were all fun reads, this one (the series finale) was a bit of a letdown. The same cast of characters was here, with their rock-solid relationships, but the full-bore action of the earlier books this time seemed more like high melodrama.

Former law professor and criminal lawyer Tom McMurtrie is diagnosed with terminal cancer and withdraws from public life. At the same time, a dangerous convict on a vendetta stages a jailbreak and comes after McMurtie and all he holds dear.

The publisher's blurb warns readers that the battle in this book is fought not in the courtroom, but on the streets and fields of north Alabama. This may account for my disappointment, since these familiar characters, in the face of their monstrous opponents, had to rely not on their wits and their wisdom, but on an increasing cycle of violence.

The villains here -- the prison escapee, his accomplice, a corrupt sheriff, and a wealthy widow -- were caricatures that were hard for me to believe, let alone engage with. Thanks to NetGalley for an advance readers copy.

A. nice conclusion to a well written series of legal thrillers but don't worry if you haven't read the earlier ones- Bailey gives you enough info to appreciate what's happening. Jim Bone Wheeler, an evil evil man, is determined to wreak vengeance on Tom McMurtrie but he didn't reckon on the fact that Tom a) has terminal cancer and b) has really good friends who won't let that happen. Bo Haynes, who is my favorite from the series, and Rick Drake not only stop Wheeler, they do the right thing. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

The last book in the series.
So knowing that, I knew that the story would have to be finished up. And that, somethings would happen that I probably wouldn't like. And I was right.
But I was very happy with the way things were tied together and up. And how things ended.

I did not realize this was the fourth book in a series, but I liked it so much, I am going to go back and read the other three! Tom McMurtie is an attorney and former law school professor who has made an enemy out of Jim-Bone Wheeler, a death-row inmate. Days before his death sentence is to be carried out, Wheeler escapes. He threatens to destroy McMurtie's family and friends, and he sets out to do just that...by killing those McMurtie holds near and dear. It didn't take me long to read this one, because I didn't want to put it down. I received an advance proof copy from netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This novel is the fourth in a series. As I have not read any of the three prior books, and completed this one, I can say that it is possible for this book to stand alone, but would probably be better having read the entire series.
Tom McMurtrie is a former attorney and law professor. JimBone Wheeler is a convicted criminal, living out his days on death row. In a visit prior to when the book is currently set. JimBone informed Tom that his day of reckoning would come; and that the convicted murderer had no intention of only killing Tom, but everyone in his life that he cares for. first.
In current times, JimBone Wheeler escapes from death row, and with the help of a contract killer like himself, begins to go after everyone in Tom's life.
The stakes are high for Tom and his family, but he will let nothing stand in his way, not even stage 4 cancer, to bring JimBone back to justice.
Recommended for anyone who enjoys legal thrillers, or thrillers in general.