{"id":15433,"date":"2021-06-01T18:27:25","date_gmt":"2021-06-01T22:27:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=15433"},"modified":"2021-06-01T18:27:25","modified_gmt":"2021-06-01T22:27:25","slug":"straight-shot-by-jack-lively","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=15433","title":{"rendered":"‘Straight Shot,’ by Jack LIvely"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou\u2019re using yourself as bait, Keeler. Is that wise?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cProbably better to think of me as a carnivorous plant with legs. If they\u2019re wise, they\u2019ll just give up now, immediately. At least they\u2019ll have a chance of staying alive.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I think the idea<\/strong> with Tom Keeler, hero of Jack Lively\u2019s Straight Shot<\/a><\/em>, is to emulate Lee Child\u2019s Jack Reacher. And there\u2019s nothing wrong with that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tom is newly retired from US Air Force Search and Rescue. But he belonged to a special unit, one trained for weapons, tactics, and covert operations. He\u2019s a very dangerous man. Right now he\u2019s touring Europe. He stops off at the town of Alencourt, France, because his mother\u2019s family came from there. Maybe he can scare up some relatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\u2019s hardly off the train before somebody tries to murder him. He handles that situation with aplomb, killing his assailant, and the police give him no trouble \u2013 in fact one of them, Officer Cecile Nazari, strikes some romantic sparks. When Tom learns that a local citizen who may be his cousin has been crippled by a similar attack, and that various murders are happening around town, he starts investigating. He finds clues relating to human smuggling and official corruption. So he makes up his mind to clean the town up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I liked best about Straight Shot<\/em> was the writing. Jack Lively knows how to put a sentence and paragraph together. The final action seemed to me kind of predictable \u2013 the previously invulnerable hero suddenly becomes vulnerable, to increase dramatic tension. And female fighters are brought in for equal opportunity or something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But all in all I thought Straight Shot<\/em> a pretty good read. I might go on to the second book.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cYou\u2019re using yourself as bait, Keeler. Is that wise?\u201d \u201cProbably better to think of me as a carnivorous plant with legs. If they\u2019re wise, they\u2019ll just give up now, immediately. At least they\u2019ll have a chance of staying alive.\u201d I think the idea with Tom Keeler, hero of Jack Lively\u2019s Straight Shot, is to emulate … Continue reading ‘Straight Shot,’ by Jack LIvely<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7,15],"tags":[3724,3726,3725],"class_list":["post-15433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","category-reviews","tag-jack-lively","tag-straight-shot","tag-tom-keeler"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15433"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15433\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15434,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15433\/revisions\/15434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}