I received a copy of Friendly Fire during a Goodreads First Reads giveaway, as well as a review copy from NetGalley and Kensington Books. I was under no obligation to provide a review and my opinion is freely given.

Braddock County Police Detective Pam Hastings is called in on a murder in progress. The suspect, Ethan Falk, spins a tale of being kidnapped when he was a kid by the same man that he just killed. Rescued by a man known to him only as Scorpion, the police has no way of tracking what happened in the past. Jonathan Grave, aka Scorpion, is deep undercover thanks to some well placed government friends for whom he occasionally does some work. When he learns about Ethan's troubles with the law, Jonathan soon discovers that the kidnapping was not what it appeared to be back then. How can he help Ethan now, when the reasons behind the murder cannot be corroborated? Will Jonathan's well placed connections be able to assist? When Scorpion uncovers a larger plot at play, will he end up being collateral damage as he tries to save the innocent?

Friendly Fire does a good job of playing on the fears of readers, as the author brings the book into a more realistic context. This novel is the eighth in a series featuring main character Jonathan Grave, yet this is the first book that I have read. I can clearly say that it was not a detriment in my understanding of the character, as I found the book thoroughly enjoyable. I am curious, however, to see the evolution of Jonathan Grave from the first book to this one, so I would definitely be interested in going back to the beginning. Friendly Fire was well paced, with many thrilling moments to keep the plot interesting. Jonathan Grave is a main character worth getting to know and his job description is fluid enough that the possibility for future plot lines are endless. I would highly recommend Friendly Fire to readers who enjoy suspense thrillers and I look forward to reading more by author John Gilstrap in the future.

From page one this is the most exciting book in the series. Its non stop action, great characters and a fun thriller. The entire series is a hit and this is a great next in series.

(I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.)

It begins with a shocking act of vengeance. Barista Ethan Falk chases a customer into the parking lot and kills him. He tells police that years ago the older man abducted and tortured him. Then Ethan's story takes an even stranger turn: he says he was rescued by a guy named Scorpion. Of course, there is no record of either the kidnapping or the rescue, because Scorpion--Jonathan Grave--operates outside the law and leaves no evidence.
As Grave struggles to find a way to defend his former precious cargo without blowing his cover, he learns the dead man has secrets that trace to an ongoing terrorist plot against the heart of America. It's up to Grave and his team to stop it. But first they must rescue Ethan Falk--a second time.

What can one say about a John Gilstrap novel? Realistic plots, action aplenty, characters that we want to know more about - their motivations and their faults - and a real sense of "heroic thriller"...and that is so very true about this book.

The best thing, for me, was the interaction between Jonathon and Boxers, his sidekick. This just adds to the depth of these stories and I think that without this relationship, the novel itself would lack a little. I am so glad these 2 work so seamlessly on the page.

If you love good thrillers that have been ripped from the front page of the newspaper, you could do worse than reading John Gilstrap!


Paul
ARH

Published by Pinnacle Books on June 28, 2016

Scorpion begins Friendly Fire by rescuing a congressman’s daughter who has been kidnapped (the details of how he finds her are conveniently unreported). Ethan Falk begins Friendly Fire by murdering the man who abused him as a child. He was rescued from that man eleven years earlier (by Scorpion, of course), but since there is no record of the kidnapping or the rescue, the police don’t believe him. That puts Scorpion, who keeps his daring and extra-legal rescues confidential, in a sticky situation.

Scorpion is Jonathan Grave, who sometimes accepts assignments from Irene Rivers, a/k/a Wolverine, who also happens to be director of the FBI. Calling in a favor, Grave wants Rivers to explain why the man Falk killed, James Stepahin, appears never to have existed. That leads to an improbable storyline about terrorists and their hired guns who plan to cause havoc in Virginia.

I don’t hold its improbability against Friendly Fire because improbability is the new norm in the world of thrillers and the novel is not so outlandish as to be laughable. The fuzziness of the background (neither the team of killers/kidnappers who cause havoc throughout the novel nor the people who hire them are well developed) is offset by the action scenes, which are tense if fairly standard for an action thriller. Scorpion and his sidekick Big Guy manage to kill dozens of bad guys without breaking a sweat, about what you’d expect from the action genre. Fortunately, the quality of John Gilstrap’s prose is better than average for the genre, making Friendly Fire a fast and pleasant read.

The strength of the novel lies in a subplot involving Falk who, while confined to jail, grudgingly agrees to open himself up to the therapist who wants to explore his story about being kidnapped and abused before being rescued by Scorpion (a story that people in authority regard as a fantasy, except for a lone cop who does the legwork to dig up corroborating evidence). The facts underlying the kidnapping and the mystery surrounding the kidnapper again veer toward the improbable, but the scenes involving Falk and the therapist are quite compelling. They are, I think, the glue that holds the novel together and that distinguish Friendly Fire from the glut of action thrillers that scream for a reader’s attention.

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