The Big Bend

Terry Rankin #1

by Gary Showalter

Meet Terry Rankin. Retired cop, owner of Rankin Protective Services, and generally a good guy. If there's any truth to the old saying that no good turn goes unpunished, Terry Rankin is it. Terry Rankin, the sole proprietor of Rankin Personal Security Services in Orlando, Florida, accepts a private meeting with a potential client. Sheila Adamson is looking for a bodyguard to protect her from her abusive husband, but Rankin refuses to take the job until she begins divorce proceedings. Moments later, Mrs. Adamson is dead and Rankin is buried beneath the rubble of his house, knocked flat by a car bomb planted in the dead woman’s Jaguar. When he’s questioned by the local police, Rankin learns that Adamson’s attorney has also turned up dead, his Cadillac riddled with bullets. Suspecting there is more to these murders than a domestic dispute, he teams up with Orlando cop Cathy Diamond for a thrilling—and treacherous—adventure that will lead them deep into the heart of the Everglades and hot on the trail of a dangerous criminal. In Rankin’s sardonic bodyguard-turned-investigator, Gary Showalter has created a new hero for fans of hardboiled mysteries.

Genres: Mystery, Thriller, Fiction, Suspense, Mystery Thriller, Action, Adventure

332 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 9, 2009

About the author

Gary Showalter was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. He lived in Aruba, Florida and the Panama Canal Zone before joining the U.S. Army during the 1960s. Mr. Showalter has picked cotton in East Texas, baled hay in Ardmore Oklahoma, sold light bulbs in Los Angeles, California, and built cattle pens in Fallon, Nevada (during a blizzard, of course). After settling in Atlanta, Georgia, Mr. Showalter worked as a professional gardener before turning his hand to furniture making.
In 1981, he moved to Israel, married, and raised four children while working as a furniture maker, silversmith, goldsmith, and ornamental wood turner. He served in the Israel Defense Forces Reserves for sixteen years, and when not on active duty he worked in government and private security. He has also served in senior management positions in two software development companies in Israel.
Mr. Showalter has published articles dealing with international terror and the Israel-Arab conflict in the Jerusalem Post, Israel national News and several political science web sites.
Mr. Showalter returned to the United States in the fall of 2003. He published his first novel, “The Big Bend”, in the fall of 2008, his second novel, “Hog Valley”, in 2009 and his third novel, “Twisted Key”, in 2011.
Mr. Showalter resides in Deland, Florida, where he has just completed his fourth novel, “Lonesome Cove”.

Reviews

[Michael Parker]

When I started reading THE BIG BEND, I thought at first it looked like it was going to be a four star read, but in the end I could only give it three stars. Gary Showalter has written a well researched novel, but as a thriller (or maybe it wasn't intended to be), it moved too slowly for me. There was far too much detail about the food, the boats, the people and the Everglades. I found much of it got in the way of the story and hampered what could have been a shorter, but fast paced story. I've no doubt Showalter wants to collect fans of his work, but if like me they are European based (I live in Spain but hail from England), they might find all the minutiae about the glades and mangroves mean little. Fine for those people, Americans mostly I would imagine, who are well aware of that area, but it was rather like taking a tour of a road map. I think Gary Showalter should trim his prose and develop a faster writing style. I still recommend this book but I'm not likely to pick up another of his novels.

[Stephanie]

It is really more like 1.5 stars. This book desperately needs a good edit. It is about 100 pages too long, and the writing is very awkward. It makes it practically unreadable which is a shame because the story is good.

The book tells the story of a guy who owns a personal security company and gets wrapped up in a huge tangle of crimes. There is a lot of action, and I love that a lot of it happened on boats. It isn't enough to save the book. I didn't need pages worth of boat descriptions.

The writing ruined the book for me. If it takes me six days to work through a legal/crime thriller you know the writing had to be rough. I usually read books in this genre in under two days.

I can't recommend it, and I won't be reading the rest of the series.

[Robbie]

This book got off to a good start and I thought I might be reading a nearly 5-star mystery. However; the author was so detailed in his descriptions that the pace slowed down considerably. I would have rated this one higher if it had been shorter and more to the point. I give this one 3.5 stars

[Diane]

A free Amazon download. A little too much detailed unnecessary information; a lot of extraneous wording. I think it cold have been a lot shorter and still have told the story.

[William]

The Big Bend
Very enjoyable thriller mystery with characters the were believable. Because I have lived in the areas of Florida that the author was writing about made this book double enjoyable. I would recommend this book to any one looking for a book with a moving plot, a fair amount of action, a little romance and humor. 2013

[Patricia Wolverton]

Great adventure

A clean, exciting adventure that keeps your interest from the start. The hero is principled and a genuine nice guy. The seems to be the beginning of a romance . All the characters were interesting. I want more of the same please.

[Kim Swartz]

This was a great book. I loved the humor. I felt like it was a little predictable and slightly convoluted sometimes but overall a good story. There was humor, mystery and romance, a great combination. I had fun reading it.

[FREDERICK M.]

Good adventure story!

Enjoyable, exciting, believable story line kept me coming back for more. Good character development and writing kept me believing the dialogue.

[W. Floyd]

Pretty Good

Would give it 4 stars, very good but not great literature by a long shot.
Good past time reading for most adults.

[Judy]

Great book. Very fast paced and kept me guessing.

[Maureen]

Liked the Florida setting and all the boating references….plot was just ok.

[Susan]

I always buy a book that takes place where I'm going on vacation. I don't feel that this book took place in Orlando. That aside, it was a wild ride, very action packed. I don't know anything about sailing, but Mr. Showalter made it come alive for me. Good story set in the Everglades and on the west side of Florida.

[David Freas]

On the whole I enjoyed this book, except for a few minor things.

Showalter uses draught instead of draft when referring to the depth of water a boat needs under its keel. That may be the correct nautical spelling, but it drew me out of the story.

The sentence Aren’t you glad I waited ’till now to tell you this? in one chapter pulled me completely out of the flow of the story. Had the author been doing this throughout the story, it wouldn’t have been so jarring.

He also in many chapters doesn’t tell the story in a truly linear way, sometimes hopping back and forth in relating a sequence of events within a scene.

One big error really jumped out at me: Showalter has characters taking items out of the trunk of a ’65 Corvette and closing the lid. That year Corvette did not have a traditional trunk, but a storage area behind the seats accessed from the interior.

Ask yourself this question; why don’t the TV heroes ever have to deal with real life like we do? They flew from one place on earth to the other seemingly on a whim, climbed out of cabs without having to search in their wallets for money, and never seemed to stop fighting crime or romancing beautiful women long enough to shop for clean socks. Here I was, scared I was gonna run out of gas money halfway back from Everglades City. This paragraph made me laugh and made Terry Rankin, Showalter’s main character, seem more human and realistic. I like a character who can poke fun at himself.

A good first effort that made me interested in reading more.

[Nancy]

I didn't actually finish the book. I got about a third of the way through and skipped to the last ten pages, which pretty much told me everything I needed to know. I've enjoyed a few books lately that lots of information about boats (on the Mississippi, in the Florida Keys, on the Pacific Ocean), and there were lots of boating details that were interesting and didn't slow the story down, as they did in this book.

I did like that the main character didn't jump right into the middle of the police investigation, and actually took time to recover from some severe injuries. That was realistic.

What wasn't realistic was the scene I described in one of my updates. Made no sense at all for the police officer to go shopping for clothes and food while her prisoner (unrestrained) was left in a car with the main character, who was supposedly a victim of the same prisoner. I just couldn't get past that, and the fact that she took an hour to do that shopping when they were supposedly in a rush to get out on the boat and away from the really bad guys.

[Linda Branich]

Three and a half stars, rounded to four.

Terry Rankin is the owner of a private security service. After meeting with a potential client at his porch/office, her car is blown to smitherines by a car bomb, all but destroying Terry's "office".

Before long, Terry is involved with some really bad guys and he is teamed up with a beautiful Orlando, FL detective.

Dead bodies, destroyed houses and boats, and wild boat chases in the Gulf, shallow waters of Florida's coast, and in the ocean keep the action flowing and the pace fast.

I know little about boats or boating, especially in Florida waters, so I especially appreciated the author's explanations and descriptions. Without them much of the story would have been lost on me.

A different and enjoyable read for me. I would read Showalter again.

[Brandon]

Not a bad book, a nice read most of the way through. I felt the author was too descriptive in some parts of the book, and even tells us he wants us to really understand what a particular boat looks like/is designed like. It was not that integral to the story, it happened right at the end when he should have stopped the story already. It would have been a solid 3, but the end ruined it. Instead of a simple ending, a cliffhanger, or something new, the author had two main characters sit down and discuss the events that just happened in detail. I felt the author didn't think we could really piece it all together ourselves, it was basically a cliff notes version of what I had just read. Overall, the story was good, the writing was off. I give it more of a 2.5.

[Bob]

Terry Rankin, an ex-MP, ex-cop and now running his own protection agency meets a client at his front porch office and although he doesn’t want the job, listens to her story. Terry, hearing that a local lawyer that he has a bad history with had recommended him, makes him sure that he doesn’t want the job. As the woman leaves her car blows up and Terry end up in the hospital pretty banged up. From then on Terry can’t seem to get away from threats, more bombs and gangs of thugs out to kill him and others he is working with. This was another first time author for me and I will be coming back to him in the future.

[Kim]

i concur on a few other reviews...page turner; mostly kept me thinking; got a little too detailed in some places, like scenery, found myself speed reading too; was a good read though would recommend it for sure. i think what got me hooked was the familarlarity with west coast of fl and tampa, orlando since i spent a good part of my adult life in all those places. i was bummed that cathy didnt come around to wanting a relationship though, would have been nice to little a little romantic flare in there too.

[Linda]

Not outstanding, but a satisfying read. I particularly enjoyed the nautical scenes, since I don't know much about boating in the Gulf. Plenty of action and things blowing up, and the author's powers of description helped the set the scenes. Once criticism would be the repetitiveness the author uses. I'm not sure if it is to lengthen the story, or if he's afraid we didn't get all the details the first time he mentions them. The main character is likable, albeit overly unlucky!

[Joe Vitucci]

everglades, Tampa bay,Florida,big bend, Arabs, Venezuelans, FBI, local cops sheriff, state police, marinas, fishing boats, machine guns, pistols, strip joints, good guys, bad guys, coast guard, mosquitos, bilge pumps , patches, bullet holes, pensions, graft, drugs, coffee, beer, bombs. shallow water, storms,camps, mattresses, pickup trucks, SUVs, helicopters, sandwiches, soft drinks, water, Texas, ranch, marco island.
,

[Chris Bridson]

My journey through Amazon.com's free e-book offerings continues. This book is a pretty good read. Some of the passages in the book are a little too detail-oriented as I found myself speed-reading through them to get to the next scene. In other places in the book the details are appreciated because they add authenticity to the story in addition to keeping me interested.

[Patricia]

"I get a kick out of telling a tale" writes author Gary Showalter and I could see he was having fun with this action-filled story about Terry Rankin, a former cop turned security company owner. Terry calls life "messy" and it certainly is for him as he is chased by men out to kill him on land and on a boat in the Gulf of Mexico.

A fun, humorous, and light read.

No sex
No graphic violence

[SimyCat]

Good mystery with a few twists. My personal opinion I liked the story. The reason for four stars...too much talking about what they were eating and there were slow spots. All in all I enjoyed reading the book and it did hold my attention.

[Carly Kirk]

Excellent!

This was a thoroughly enjoyable book and I'm about to purchase the next in the series which should show how very much I enjoyed it... Very likable main character and a very interesting story line that didn't go anywhere I expected.

[Michelle]

Not bad. Could use some editing because it got slow at times. But overall, a good read.

[Tom Park]

Fast moving right from the very start. And the author keeps you guessing as to who the real bad boys may be.

[Billie]

This was unexpectedly a real page turner with lots of twists and turns...a private investigator unwittingly caught up in a string of murders etc...definitely worth the read

[Brenda]

I really liked the book. Yes, he used a lot of words about boats but if he hadn't explained it I would have been lost. Good work, Mr. Showalter!

[Enid Jane Booth]

Enjoyed and will read more in the series.

[bex]

This one definitely deserved 4* despite smaller bugs. I liked that things seemed to be wrapping up then a new unexpected twist came... multiple times.