Professional bodyguard John Locke is in no mood to babysit Greg Amadeo, a drug dealer turncoat who wants to visit his wife in Mexico, collect some cash, and settle debts before testifying in the States, but how can Locke pass up the warm climate, lovely ladies, and a quick buck? Amadeo has a trick up his sleeve that may cause Locke to come back in a body bag if he does not use all the skills he learned in the British army's SAS elite corps. With an appreciation for the more civilized aspects of life, Locke finds the fishing village, Zihuatanejo, right up his alley with two of his favorite things, fine women and tasty food, but there are just too many bullets flying around for Locke's peace of mind.
Born 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).
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.