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321 pages, Paperback
Published January 8, 2025
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June 22, 2025
My old Facebook Friend John Carpenter (not to be confused with the famous filmmaker, though that bloke does happen to be one of my fellow USC alumni--Fight On, Trojans!!) and his hard-hitting hero David "TI (Tire Iron") Smith are back for a third time. This time, TI isn't chasing terrorist guys on international soil, but rather gangster bad guys on American soil, though still technically OCONUS (Outside the CONtinental United States): Hawaii.
In this storyline, the Yakuza (the Japanese Mafia) is back in Hawaii, engaging in drug and sex trafficking. Though none of Mr. Carpenter's TI novels are for the squeamish or faint of heart, this one hits upon some really "heavy" (for lack of a better word) and disturbing stuff, as one of the young women caught up in this horrific dark spiral of drug addiction and sex trafficking is Cindy, a family friend via TI's daughter. Mr. Carpenter pulls no punches in graphic descriptions of drugs like heroin and meth on Cindy's mind and body.
The book gives good insights into Hawaii's criminal and law enforcement culture alike (as well as that state opprobrious anti-gun laws), and, as is the case of John's previous two novels, a great source of foreign phrases (though some of the phrases that the author provides are different from what I learned in my Japanese phrasebooks such as the Lonely Planet series).
This is the longest novel in the TI novel series, and though it doesn't contain as much action as the first two ("The Gaza Protocol" and "Renaissance Man"), it still engrosses you and keeps the pages turning; it's 321 pages in length and I finished it in two days. And the ending is slam-bang; sure, it's a tad implausible, but hey, that's escapist adventure fiction for ya.
About my only kvetch other than the implausible ending is that there's a fair number of typos in the book (such as "mussel" [sic] for muzzle), but oh well.
Great passage from p. 231:
"He could tell he was with another wolf. TI was familiar with the wolf, sheep, and sheepdog analog[y] popularized by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman. He wanted to add another category to better encompass everyone. TI considered himself a Wolfhound. Not the modern type that has been bred for domesticated bliss and shows, but the original Irish Wolfhounds that would seek after wolves and kill them. As a matter-of-fact, the wolfhounds completely eradicated wolves from Ireland in 1786. Sure, of he happened to be in the same place a dirtbag criminal was operating, he'd confidently intervene. But he didn't allow happenstance to dictate everything. Often, he sought out and eliminated the bad guy."
Domo arigato, Carpenter-san! Kanpai, TI-san!
In this storyline, the Yakuza (the Japanese Mafia) is back in Hawaii, engaging in drug and sex trafficking. Though none of Mr. Carpenter's TI novels are for the squeamish or faint of heart, this one hits upon some really "heavy" (for lack of a better word) and disturbing stuff, as one of the young women caught up in this horrific dark spiral of drug addiction and sex trafficking is Cindy, a family friend via TI's daughter. Mr. Carpenter pulls no punches in graphic descriptions of drugs like heroin and meth on Cindy's mind and body.
The book gives good insights into Hawaii's criminal and law enforcement culture alike (as well as that state opprobrious anti-gun laws), and, as is the case of John's previous two novels, a great source of foreign phrases (though some of the phrases that the author provides are different from what I learned in my Japanese phrasebooks such as the Lonely Planet series).
This is the longest novel in the TI novel series, and though it doesn't contain as much action as the first two ("The Gaza Protocol" and "Renaissance Man"), it still engrosses you and keeps the pages turning; it's 321 pages in length and I finished it in two days. And the ending is slam-bang; sure, it's a tad implausible, but hey, that's escapist adventure fiction for ya.
About my only kvetch other than the implausible ending is that there's a fair number of typos in the book (such as "mussel" [sic] for muzzle), but oh well.
Great passage from p. 231:
"He could tell he was with another wolf. TI was familiar with the wolf, sheep, and sheepdog analog[y] popularized by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman. He wanted to add another category to better encompass everyone. TI considered himself a Wolfhound. Not the modern type that has been bred for domesticated bliss and shows, but the original Irish Wolfhounds that would seek after wolves and kill them. As a matter-of-fact, the wolfhounds completely eradicated wolves from Ireland in 1786. Sure, of he happened to be in the same place a dirtbag criminal was operating, he'd confidently intervene. But he didn't allow happenstance to dictate everything. Often, he sought out and eliminated the bad guy."
Domo arigato, Carpenter-san! Kanpai, TI-san!
Displaying 1 of 1 review