A man wakes up, sitting in a Jeep in the desert. He has no idea who he is.

All he knows is that he’s a killer. A highly trained, efficient killer (He becomes known as Verdugo, the Executioner). In the next few days he will have plenty of opportunity to do what he does best. He will tangle with the US military intelligence and drug cartels, and meet a woman to whom he is drawn, who knows who he is but won’t tell him.

All the elements of a pretty compelling thriller are here in Verdugo Dawn. Lots of action, plot twists and setbacks, an intriguing protagonist.

But the book didn’t work for me. Although I’ve enjoyed Blake Banner’s work, I had trouble with the latest of his series I tried, due to repeated targeting of the Catholic Church as a villain. Religious matters also turned me against Verdugo Dawn. The narrative is interrupted in a couple places by references to Carlos Castaneda and dream-like dialogues with an old wise man named “Olaf” who talks a lot of solipsistic physics that we’re expected to view as profound.

Also the action was often implausible. And there were lots of spelling and homophone errors in the text.

Didn’t work for me.