Monday, February 27, 2017

The Eyes of a Wolf - James LePore


THE EYES OF A WOLF is James LePore's second thriller novella about Zevon Evans, an Iraq War vet with brain damage, a metal plate in his head, and enhanced skills that mostly involve killing. But it's actually a prequel to the first book, so you can start with it and follow things just fine. That's actually what I did.

In this one, Zev gets a call from the doctor who put him back together after he was wounded. She's in trouble, so he doesn't hesitate to fly across country to San Diego to help her—only by the time he gets there, she's missing. Zev has resources to help him, though, and recruits others, and soon he's on the trail of some dangerous conspirators engaged in a deadly scheme that reaches across the border.

Zev is a very likable narrator/protagonist, despite his penchant for violence, and LePore manages to combine leisurely digressions into his character with terse, slam-bang action scenes. It's an approach that probably shouldn't work, but in the hands of an excellent writer like LePore, it does. I enjoyed this yarn enough that I immediately went and bought the first one. THE EYES OF A WOLF is a good, modern-day thriller that's not bloated and overwritten like so many these days. Recommended.


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