Gray Justice

by Ron W Mumford

Dirty Harry teams with The Godfather to bend the law around Scarface. The impossible goal of Judd Rayburn, El Paso assistant district attorney, and his best friend, Zuni Indian special F.B.I. agent Joe Feather, is to win the war against the Colombian/Mexican drug cartels who supply the drugs crossing the Mexico border with the US. After a huge, well planned drug bust at the Mexico border with members of the El Paso Police, DEA, ATF and Texas Rangers goes horrifically wrong, Judd and Joe begin to take the law into their own hands. Enter Rikki Rhine, Navy fighter pilot and first female Top Gun winner, who just happens to be the former college flame of Judd Rayburn. She's smart, pretty and daring. Together Rikki and Judd form their own jury. Through unforeseen circumstance, they meet the head of all twenty-three families of the U.S. based La Cosa Nostra, and actually find some common ground. It's all about the money. Billions of dollars are involved in this high-stakes game of power, greed, deception and seemingly unfair justice. Whatever it takes to win. Secret and forbidden romances abound in this international thriller. The cartel’s actions are beyond grievous, they're heinous. The court room drama and unique solution to the problem of drugs in America will astound you. Can a form of Gray Justice legitimize organized crime in America and end the drug problem? And, as a side issue, clean up “The Swamp” in Washington, D.C.?

274 pages, Paperback

Published February 24, 2018

Reviews

[Gordon Long · Rating 3 out of 5]

The concept of this story evolves from the politically incorrect cowboy attitude that is the direct cause of most of America’s problems at home and abroad. The country has set up so many security organizations and law-enforcement agencies that the left hand has no idea what the right foot is doing, because it’s busy tripping over the right knee. So the only way to get anything done in this complex SNAFU is for some independent Rambo-type character to go wild and take care of it himself.

This gives the author scope to start and end the story with two wonderful action sequences, with bullets and blood flying in all directions. The middle of the book is taken up with the procedures of a trial big enough to attract national media attention. This in turn creates a problem for the author with size of trial and the excess of detail needed to understand it all. This is dealt with pretty well, considering, because Mumford has done his research, and can give us enough fascinating detail to keep us interested.

He also does a good job of revealing the bottom-to-top implications of the difficulty of stopping the drug trade, from single agents dealing with individual criminals all the way up to top-level government officials and elected politicians.

The fantasy gets even more fantastical when the heroes create an assault team of ex-CIA and mercenaries and go on a rescue mission with the help of the US Navy. Then the happily-ever-after ending solves the War on Drugs with a definitely creative solution.

Unfortunately, the manuscript contains a bunch of those little writing glitches that create bumps in a smooth flow of reading that new authors often need edited out: quick switches of point of view without warning, misused words and a secondary plotline that is completely undeveloped, then suddenly thrust into the foreground for a dramatic conclusion.

Recommended for people who like their action simple and their world-view unrealistic.

I received a complimentary copy with no requirement for a review.

[Belinda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was given an arc copy of Gray Justice in exchange for an honest review. While this book certainly had some good points to it, it wasn’t actually what it thought it was going to be. There was too much politics and not enough action for it to hold my interest. This may be better suited to male readers than female. Unfortunately it just wasn’t my thing.

[Becca · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really wasn’t too sure if I’d like this one or not. To be honest, I read some reviews before I started it and started to mental kick myself for volunteering to read this book. I’m not a fan of political books. That being said I was pleasantly surprised. There were a few parts that I was like ugh enough with the political Mumbai jumbo but overall I thought it was fantastic. To me it felt as if I was reading a true crime book as I could see this happening in real life not just in book world.

I received a complimentary copy from Book Reviews 4 You with no requirement for a review.