Review: "Breaking Cover" by J. D. Rhoades

 

Breaking Cover J. D. Rhoades Minotaur Books, 2008     Breaking Cover is a supercharged, violent thriller, and as entertaining as the genre gets. Undercover F.B.I. agent, Tony Wolf, went underground four years ago after his assignment with a ruthless biker gang, known as the Brotherhood, went sideways. On the run, and unsure who he can trust—including some of his fellow F.B.I. agents—Wolf finds a hidey-hole in the small, picturesque town of Pine Lake, North Carolina. But Wolf blows his cover when he rescues two brothers from their kidnapper after seeing one of them in the window of a van. An F.B.I. agent recognizes Wolf from a gas station security camera, which rings more than a few bells in Washington. Then a tenacious local tv reporter captures Wolf on film—and identifies him as a possible conspirator in the boys’ kidnapping. When Wolf’s image hits the national media, it brings the Brotherhood to Pine Lake looking for a very rough kind of justice. Breaking Cover, which was originally advertised as a standalone, is the first of two thrillers featuring Tony Wolf. The second is Broken Shield (2013). I haven’t read that second book—in fact, Breaking Cover is my first experience with Rhoades’s writing. But man, it won’t be my last. The breakneck pacing, the sleek, literate, and hardboiled style give it sizzle. There are gunfights, explosions, hidden tunnels, a hard-as-nails deputy Sheriff, and Wolf’s wife—who figured her husband had been dead for the last four years. But it’s the vileness of the Brotherhood with their irrational hatred of Wolf and a penchant for dispatching its enemies with the grotesque Blood Eagle, and Wolf’s paranoia that keeps him running and gunning that give Breaking Cover pop.

Find Breaking Cover on Amazon—click here for the Kindle edition and here for the paperback.