LONE STAR LETHAL: TAYLOR MOORE'S RICOCHET

Taylor Moore has built a solid action series with his CIA operative and Texas cowboy Garrett Kohle. The capable secret soldier whose profession often brings trouble to the West Texas doorstep of his family ranch are as if a regional novel got invaded by a military thriller. His latest, Ricochet, plays even more to the dual sides of Moore's writing.

As with the two previous books, the book drops us into the action at the start like a James Bond pre-title sequence with Garrett and his unit capturing a traitor protected in a safe house.He plans to hang up his guns to marry his sweetheart, Lucy, work the ranch with brother Bridger and father Butch, and be a father to Asadi an Afghan teen he rescued and adopted. These plans are derailed when a friend who works at a nearby nuclear weapons plant pays him a visit. He and other employees are being blackmailed to sabotage the plant. Kohle assembles his team together to to see who is behind it. However commandos have hijacked a train of weapons and there is a plan involving a visit from the Secretary of Defense. If that's not enough, a bully is pusking Asadi around.

Taylor Moore spins all these plates and keeps it all moving like he's written thirty of these instead of three. His prose is clean and fast with verbs that pop. His dialogue distinguishes his characters without being showy. While he writing to a fast pace, he is able to paint frontier vistas and connect his people to us us. It's John Ford in book form with a lot more automatic gunfire.

Ricochet continues Taylor Moore's streak. He balances the blazing guns with family dynamics at a perfect mix. There are hints that Garrett Kohle will be going back to Afghanistan on a mission tied to Asadi's family. I'm ready to follow him in.