[Alton Rhode Mysteries 05] • Gunner

The brutal murder of a Medal of Honor winner from the Vietnam War, staged as a robbery, has unintended consequences. The killer, a hired assassin, is himself a veteran of more recent American wars and feels betrayed by the people who hired him to gun down a man he now reveres as a comrade. The outraged assassin will now use the $20,000 “blood money” he was paid for the murder to seek revenge.

But he has a problem. When on “assignment,” he uses cutouts and secret accounts, and has no way to find out who ordered the hit.

But he knows someone who can. Someone he has trusted with his life in the past. Someone who has a reputation for doing the impossible.

GUNNER is the fifth in the series of Alton Rhode mysteries. Featuring the masterful thriller dialogue and humor that is the hallmark of this series, it is a twisty tale of betrayal, avarice and sex -- where the usual suspects may not pan out. Multibillion-dollar New York City projects and upstate New York politics clash in GUNNER, which also typically places some otherwise nefarious characters on the side of the angels when the body count rises and the real villains are unmasked.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Lawrence De Maria is a Pulitzer-nominated journalist who cut his teeth on financial corruption at The New York Times and Forbes. His other thrillers and mysteries in the Alton Rhode and Jake Scarne series do not have to be read in order, but he believes to do so will enhance the reader’s experience.

ALTON RHODE MYSTERIES (in order):

Capriati’s Blood

Laura Lee

Siren’s Tears

Sister

Gunner

JAKE SCARNE THRILLERS (in order):

Sound of Blood

Madman’s Thirst

Killerfest

The Viron Conspiracy

A tenth thriller, HURRICANE FATS, features CIA agent/assassin COLE SUDDEN. It is likely we haven’t heard the last of SUDDEN.

CRITICAL ACCLAIM

According to John Crudele of the New York Post, Alton Rhode has "a touch of Bourne, a dash of Bond and a sprig of Spenser."

“While De Maria may have been an award-winning financial reporter, he's an awfully good fiction writer as well.” (THE NAPLES DAILY NEWS)

“What is really almost beyond belief is how easily De Maria has transitioned from the dry world of financial reporting to the wild and lavish world of novel writing.” (THE COLLIER CITIZEN)

De Maria is “a master of thriller dialogue.” (THE WASHINGTON INDEPENDENT REVIEW OF BOOKS)