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John Locke #2
Lockestep
John Locke is a professional bodyguard in Toronto whose years serving in the British SAS force gave him a taste for adventure while disposing him against bullies and terrorists. He's hired by the RCMP to accompany a mob-connected drug dealer to Mexico and keep him alive so he can return and implicate, as he's promised, larger fish.Locke is a hero midway between Bond and large-hearted and educated, sensitive and physically very fit. When his charge escapes off a beach in western Mexico, Locke commandeers the local parasailing concession and descends upon his target a small sailing vessel without getting even his gun wet.After a few amorous adventures, a grueling hike into the Mexican hills, some fancy double-crossing and the rescue of a famous American model from a drug habit, Locke finally delivers his charge back to the cold Toronto winter.
Paperback
First published January 1, 1987
About the author
Ted Wood
36 books23 followersBorn Edward John Wood in Shoreham, Sussex, England, he lived in London until the outbreak of the Second World War. Enforced relocation to rural Worcestershire, which left him with a lifelong love of the countryside, was followed by service in RAF Coastal Command. In 1954 he immigrated to Canada, where he was a policeman in Toronto for three years. In 1957 he joined MacLaren Advertising as a copywriter, eventually becoming a creative director. He now lives in Whitby, Ontario.
While employment in law enforcement and advertising provided food and shelter for his growing family, Wood found time to write and sell short stories to Canadian and American magazines and to write television plays; he also collaborated on the musical comedy Mister Scrooge, which was produced in Toronto and on cbc television. In 1974 he published a collection of Chekhovian short stories, Somebody Else's Summer.
His Dead in the Water (1984) won the Scribner's Crime Novel Award, and publication in the USA and Canada. The book featured a small-town policeman, Reid Bennett, and his dog Sam—the entire law enforcement needs of Murphy's Harbour, a fictional resort community in the Muskoka region of Ontario. Bennett's and Sam's popularity was enough to extend the series though Murder on Ice (1984) to its current tenth title, A Clean Kill (1995), and to have the books also published in England and in many translations. A second series featuring a peripatetic Toronto-based bodyguard, John Locke, has thus far extended to three titles: Hammerlocke (1986), Lockestep (1987) and Timelocke (1991).
Source: Ted Wood Biography - (b. 1931), Mister Scrooge, Somebody else's summer, Dead in the water
Librarian Note: The John Locke series is published under the pseudonym Jack Barnao.
While employment in law enforcement and advertising provided food and shelter for his growing family, Wood found time to write and sell short stories to Canadian and American magazines and to write television plays; he also collaborated on the musical comedy Mister Scrooge, which was produced in Toronto and on cbc television. In 1974 he published a collection of Chekhovian short stories, Somebody Else's Summer.
His Dead in the Water (1984) won the Scribner's Crime Novel Award, and publication in the USA and Canada. The book featured a small-town policeman, Reid Bennett, and his dog Sam—the entire law enforcement needs of Murphy's Harbour, a fictional resort community in the Muskoka region of Ontario. Bennett's and Sam's popularity was enough to extend the series though Murder on Ice (1984) to its current tenth title, A Clean Kill (1995), and to have the books also published in England and in many translations. A second series featuring a peripatetic Toronto-based bodyguard, John Locke, has thus far extended to three titles: Hammerlocke (1986), Lockestep (1987) and Timelocke (1991).
Source: Ted Wood Biography - (b. 1931), Mister Scrooge, Somebody else's summer, Dead in the water
Librarian Note: The John Locke series is published under the pseudonym Jack Barnao.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
April 16, 2023
3.5 *
John Locke, professional bodyguard, returns with another tricky job. This time he's guarding a drug baron returning to Mexico with unfinished business in exchange for his testimony against others higher up in the drug world. Unfortunately, no one (other than Locke) seems to be who they appear in this tale of backstabbing, turncoats, and danger. A few characters are likable in the novel, but readers cheering for Locke may feel apprehensions many times.
I'll be reading the next in the series. This volume was written in the 1980s, with perspectives of the time. Barnao also writes as mystery writer Ted Wood, too, but the styles of the two series are definitely different. The style of writing, however, is still easy to read.
John Locke, professional bodyguard, returns with another tricky job. This time he's guarding a drug baron returning to Mexico with unfinished business in exchange for his testimony against others higher up in the drug world. Unfortunately, no one (other than Locke) seems to be who they appear in this tale of backstabbing, turncoats, and danger. A few characters are likable in the novel, but readers cheering for Locke may feel apprehensions many times.
I'll be reading the next in the series. This volume was written in the 1980s, with perspectives of the time. Barnao also writes as mystery writer Ted Wood, too, but the styles of the two series are definitely different. The style of writing, however, is still easy to read.
Displaying 1 of 1 review