Book Review: Backlash: Venom and Vengeance from 'Nam

IndieBookView

Jan 2

Backlash: Venom and Vengeance from 'Nam

by Ana Manwaring

Genre: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

ISBN: 9781644566596

Print Length: 323 pages

Publisher: Indies United Publishing LLC

Reviewed by Peggy Kurkowski

In the fifth installment of the JadeAnne Stone Mexico Adventure thrillers, Jackman Quint reckons with his past as his former commanding officer in Vietnam centers Quint and everyone he loves in his sights. Who will be left standing after vengeance runs its wicked course?

Picking right up after Coyote (Book 4 in the series), Quint says goodbye to his daughter, JadeAnne, at the airport as she returns to California with her new boyfriend and German shepherd. After tentatively reestablishing their relationship—waylaid by his dishonorable discharge and years of incarceration for drug trafficking as a soldier in the Vietnam War—he is hopeful of a future with JadeAnne, urging her to join his growing investigation firm in Mexico City, Mexico.

But Quint has bigger problems than missing his daughter: his ex-CO Chuck Nader is hot on Quint's trail to eliminate him and anyone else that stands in the way of his vengeance. He even threatens to take away the one person Quint loves more than any other: JadeAnne. Quint's criminal history with Nader haunts him, just as the nagging question of why Nader wants to kill him escapes an answer. Reviewing what happened in 1974 with Nader, Quint feels he is the one who has a grudge:

"This was how Nader operated in 'Nam. Preyed on the weak, the ignorant. The young. Getting them to do his dirty work like transporting drugs. Quint wondered what Nader had done to get all these kids to join him in his vendetta."