A taught action thriller Double Crossed follows the exploits of Rider–a tough, wisecracking, ex-Navy Seal–as he tries to infiltrate and ultimately take down a dangerous biker gang with ties to a South American drug trafficking ring. Rider is a tough, canny protagonist who has a casual relationship with violence and killing. Indeed Rider seems to go out of his way at times to specifically provoke and incite violent reactions among those he counts as adversaries and takes a certain smug satisfaction baiting and belittling foes deemed less clever and articulate than himself. He carries himself in all situations as the alpha male.
All being said, Rider has a moral centre, best demonstrated perhaps by his treatment of children and animals. And for all his distilled violence, it must be said that he is not easily angered or provoked, leaving him at all times very much in control his own reactions. Furthermore, despite the fact that he is repeatedly presented with attractive women (some trustworthy others not) in comprised situations and in need of rescue and/or protection (some legitimately others not), he is not a man led around by his loins, nor does he casually indulge in gratuitous sexual exploits–though certainly not for lack of opportunity.
In the prelude to the main story, we see Rider the Navy Seal on what will turn out to be his final mission with his team. Shortly after the successful conclusion of this mission he learns that his wife Ashley has been given a terminal diagnosis which ends up claiming her less than a year later. After the death of Ashley, he feels that he cannot function as he once did, and so he leaves the service entirely.
Except a man of his impressive skillset is not long out of work, and soon he finds himself as a government agent, working solo missions as an operative in the war of drugs, both domestically and abroad.
In the main story Rider is pulled from an undercover operation that would have seen him infiltrate a dangerous motorcycle gang. His new mission is much more in line with his Seal training for he is to seek out and destroy a South American drug lab. While he is in the jungles it becomes clear to him that he has been betrayed. Rider ends up surviving that betrayal, destroying the lab, rescuing a dozen women held hostage, befriending a South American boy and–most importantly–gaining the trust and loyalty of a preternaturally intelligent attack dog trained by the drug lords to bring about his demise. It is with the help of Chance, the name of the dog, that Rider ultimately preserve over the waves of muscle headed adversaries set against him once he returns to the US to pick up where he left off with his under cover operation verse the motorcycle gang–and ultimately rooting out the individual who double-crossed him.
This novel will play to the taste of those who enjoy tough, brawny action and adventure where the protagonist, through physical prowess and force of will, overcomes obstacles set in his path. Fans of the Jack Reacher novels, for instance, will find more than a little of Reacher in Rider. While Rider is admittedly working for the government, he is every inch the maverick; his supervision is minimal at best, and for the most part he calls his own shots–a big guy with a military background and very few qualms about the means employed to achieve the ends he’s is pursuing.
His penchant for cracking wise and getting under the skin of those he puts himself against also reminds one of Spencer from the Robert B. Parker books. All of which is to say that there is little doubt this kind of hard-driving, punch’ em-up will find an eager audience. One of the largest strengths is the authors sense of humour. Don’t get me wrong, the novel is not comic per se–this is not Carl Hiaasen–but there is a wry irreverence to Rider which helps keep the ubiquitous violence and ever mounting body count from becoming grim. While Rider is a dangerous, capable individual and not a man to be taken lightly, he dosent take situations, his foes, or even himself that seriously, and because most of the scenes are highly dialogue driven it helps insure that even dark scenes are kept light.
Furthermore, because the manuscript is told in the first person, even the narration has a certain smarmy swagger to it, which I hope many readers will find enduring.