Anyway, ex military cop and special forces type (obviously) takes a delayed visit to his mum. She is a Sheriff and an ex-Marine (obviously) and has been shot while investigating the disappearance of a young girl. When she dies of her wound he decides to follow up the case and visit the area where other disappearances have been taking place. And he decides to take a break from his special secret Government job and just drift with nothing but a toothbrush for company. But as a starting point, why not visit the place where women have been vanishing? Obviously. Her son, James Hood, is mixed up with the wrong people--powerful people. The kind of people who will kill to protect a deadly secret. Terrified for her granddaughter's life, she has no one left to trust. At times, Widow almost seems human in this book. He struggles with things that used to be second nature for him and even needs to enlist an old friend for assistance. Widow also steps things up and really gets his hands dirty in this one. This first book in a new loner-drifter series (think Lee Child's Reacher) is well written and, at times, almost poetic in it's atmospheric descriptions of both place and the inside of Widow's head. Told in the first person, it is an easy book to read, the sentences short and uncomplicated, like the man himself. But seeing through his eyes it is easy to empathize with him. On arrival he upsets the local cops (obviously) and the local gang of nutcases (obviously) and of course starts a relationship with a lady doctor at a local clinic. And then the bad guys roll in to clean up their mess and the body count rises.

The concept here was really good, it was an interesting mystery but I had to take two stars off for wildly inaccurate claims about the firearms and ammunition as well as the many many times the hero did something fatal yet survived. This is further enhanced by narrator Aden Philip Ormond's excellent interpretation of this lead protagonist. The reading is well paced, not too fast, not too emotionally imbued but just right for the military trained loner rediscovering his past and his understanding of just how much he owed to his mother in the last precious moments they are able to have together. Her death is his new beginning as sets out in search of her killer. With expression and good intonation, Orson's pleasant rough velvety voice also gives individual life to each of the other characters in the book also. Writer and narrator in harmony together.But that's all I'll write on that. I did enjoy this book, and I really wanted to give it three stars, but there are too many technical errors and such. Weirdly enough it seemed the second half was more polished than the first half, and Widow seemed more believable as Blade got the hang of the character. The writing became tighter, too.

Some local townspeople want to blame Muslims. The politicians want to blame guns. The outside media only care about the headlines. This book was by far the tensest of the four, even though it may not have dealt with the biggest consequences, it does deal with a subject that is on most people's minds. Domestic terrorism. It confronts some of the issues in today's world where everyone seems in such a hurry to label and draw conclusions, long before the facts are in.Before long our hero is taken in to be interrogated, let go, asked to help, escorted out of town, tried to be beaten up, before giving in to helping the MPs with this case.