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This past weekend at Bouchercon Chris Holm won the Anthony Award for Best Novel for THE KILLING KIND. He joins a list of authors who have put out some amazing books and the list of books is like a “what to read” if you love mysteries. If you read THE KILLING KIND you know why people love it. Last Tuesday before Bouchercon started RED RIGHT HAND, the sequel to THE KILLING KIND came out, and let me tell you, it’s a barn burner. It’s like Led Zeppelin, one album is great, the next even better. ( So maybe this is Chris’s Physical Graffiti?)

RRHMichael Hendricks used to work for a covert group of the US military but is now a solo act. While technically a criminal he is actually following his own personal code of justice. In RED RIGHT HAND a Federal witness long thought gone is outed when a terrorist attack exposes him. With the witness in damger an FBI agent does what she can to protect him but the feds only care about the attack in a very dangerous and tunnel vision way. Agent Thompson does the one thing she can think of and that is to involve Hendricks, and this is the kind of thing that is right up his alley. The group targeting the witness known as the council does not take this well and begins to go after Hendricks any way they can including adding people Hendricks cares about to their own hit list.

Chris Holm weaves this all together in such a fabulous way that the pacing and plot sweep you up and before you even know it you are half way through the book. I actually forgot to eat while I was reading. I love Hendricks and while technically an anti-hero he’s the guy I would want on my side, he has the skills and resources to get the job done without restraints of oversight. And much like the author who writes him, he has a lot of heart. If you dig the books of Lee Child and Joe Finder you now have another must read author to add to your list.