Indie Spotlight: Piety and Murder
This week I’m featuring a taut thriller by a former Green Beret. Yes, I do make some interesting discoveries deep in the Indie Publishing Rabbit Hole. The book is Piety and Murder by Thomas Rowe Drinkard. Available in the following formats: Kindle | Nook.
Description: Mack Brinson has two major problems. He is trying to recover from the long trauma of losing the love of his life—his wife Song. Now, his only family, Song’s mother Huong, is being systematically, and legally, bilked by a sleazy televangelist’s organization.
When Brinson goes to the smarmy preacher’s headquarters in an attempt to stop the thievery, he is physically threatened.
Brinson is a former Green Beret and isn’t intimidated. He goes after the preacher in an attempt to gather embarrassing information. When he gets too close, someone tries to murder him in a running gunfight on the Lake Ponchartrain Bridge.
Along the way, Brinson meets a woman, Pattie, who finally begins to dissolve the emotional walls he has erected. He begins to learn how to love again.
There is an unseen hand behind the preacher’s organization. The face of the antagonist is unclear, but when Huong is kidnapped, Brinson has to call on his old Special Operations contacts to find the kidnapper and rescue her.
The face of the man behind the televangelist finally becomes clear and shocking. Vengeance: slow and awful lies ahead.
My take: This suspenseful thriller, written with prescisely detailed prose, and cast with unique characters, delves into a phase of life rarely covered in other books featuring protagonists that boast membership in the Special Forces. Mack Brinson is retired, Post Mid-life, and shares a Southern home with his dog and dead wife’s mother. Rambo this guy is not, and that’s the strength in this tale of duty and vengeance. While Brinson’s days of parachuting into some jungle warzone may be behind him, there’s still plenty to fight for when a smarmy televangelist threatens what’s near and dear. Timely and telling, Piety and Murder is a nice addition to your eReader of choice.