Subverting Justice

September 15, 2017
A maverick Canadian officer shatters the rules to stop a murderous motorcycle club.Veteran Vancouver Mountie Jack Taggart is under a microscope for faking his own death to catch a perp and executing a dangerous drug raid that should have been handed off to the local police. But this doesn't blunt his disgust or fury over the torture and murder of his informant Damien Zabat and several others, presumably by a local crime syndicate known as Satan's Wrath. Wrath's most volatile member, Pure E, already plans to take Taggart out. There's plenty of turmoil within the Mounted Police Unit as well. Taggart's partner, Laura, is having a meltdown over his latest daredevil move, and his supervisor, Rose, feels the strain of being caught between wild-card Taggart and the two Assistant Commissioners, Isaac and Mortimer. Still, she gives a tentative go-ahead to his pursuit of Satan's Wrath. Taggart's long-suffering wife, Natasha, a doctor, can only fret privately and try to keep the danger away from their sons, Mike and Steve. Taggart and Laura lean hard on another informant, Lance Morgan, a close confidant of Pure E, but his reliability is questionable. Taggart also confronts the syndicate head-on. When he refuses to play by the rules, he's called on the carpet again, but this doesn't stop him. The 11th from Easton (A Delicate Matter, 2016, etc.) is bluntly written but packed with action and juicy details of the volatile relationships among law enforcement professionals.

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December 1, 2017

Four people were gruesomely tortured and murdered on the orders of Purvis Evans, aka Pure E, president of the Satan's Wrath Motorcycle Club. Written in blood at one of the crime scenes is a message for Jack Taggart, a Royal Canadian Mounted Police Intelligent Unit officer, or Mountie, who often works undercover. Things become even more personal when Taggart's family is targeted by Pure E. In their quest to take out Pure E, the streetwise Taggart and partner Laura tangle with bikers, police bureaucrats, and low-lifes while breaking the rules and subverting justice. The fast-moving plot provides fascinating insight into the stresses of undercover work, with Taggart's occasional inner monologs revealing aspects of his personality. VERDICT Easton's 11th series mystery (after A Delicate Matter) is a gritty, hard-boiled tale of retribution set in Vancouver, BC. Easton's experience as an undercover Mountie propels the story line with a degree of visceral veracity.--ACT

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 15, 2018
The high-adrenaline 11th installment (following A Delicate Matter) in Easton’s gritty series featuring Cpl. Jack Taggart, an undercover agent for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, begins just after the murder of Damien Zabat, the head of the Satans Wrath motorcycle gang operating in Vancouver, B.C. Purvis Evans or “Pure Evil or Pure E,” the new leader of the gang, is suspected of being responsible for his death, as well as of ordering the torture and murder of three other people. A message written in blood at the triple-murder scene threatens Jack. Aside from the dangers of trying to bring down Pure E, Jack must also deal with a clueless assistant commissioner who disapproves of his methods and is about to become his new boss. Easton ramps up the action in this installment, with Jack enlisting Mack Cockerill, a Satans Wrath insider, to help him track Pure E’s drug shipments. This is an exciting cat-and-mouse game involving high-level Russians, cocaine traffickers, and local drug gangs. This novel is perfect for readers who want a tense thriller and a realistic view (Easton spent 20 years as an RCMP undercover agent) into the dark mazes where of gangs, informants, and undercover cops try to trap each other.