The Deep Abiding

Ryan Lock #10

by Sean Black

Retired US Marine Ty Johnson is hired to protect a young reporter investigating the brutal, decades-old murder of a young African American woman in the Florida Everglades.
The small town of Darling, Florida, on the edge of the Everglades, seems like an idyllic place to raise a family or retire in peace. But something deeply sinister lies beneath the surface, and military veteran Ty soon finds himself plunged into a living nightmare that will test the very limits of his endurance.

Genres: Thriller

318 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 1, 2019

About the author

I write the Ryan Lock series of thrillers, which feature ex-military bodyguard Ryan Lock and his partner, former Marine, Ty Johnson. The first two books in the series, Lockdown and Deadlock, hit the Official UK Top 50 Bestseller Chart, and the third, Gridlock, has just been released in hardback. They have have also been translated into Dutch, German, and Russian.

I'm a firm believer in hands-on research, also known as 'any excuse to get out of the house', so before I wrote Lockdown, I trained for a month with former members of the Royal Military Police's specialist close protection unit. That turned out to be great preparation for Deadlock, which I researched by spending time inside Pelican Bay Supermax in California (see the TV interview on my author page). I recently completed a desert survival course in Arizona and ventured into the tunnels under Las Vegas, all as preparation for a new standalone thriller I will begin work on once I have completed the fourth Ryan Lock book.

Before I became a full-time novelist, I taught college and wrote television drama. I'm an Oxbridge and Ivy League graduate – try not to hold that against me.

Reviews

[Best Crime Books & More · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a HUGE Lock fan and must admit when I saw that this instalment was more about Ty, I was a little unsure. However, Mr Black has shown his skill by producing an amazing story which frankly is one of his best books in my opinion. Don’t get me wrong Mr Lock didn’t feature in it nearly enough for my liking but frankly Ty shone all on his own.

Ty is looking after journalist Cressida King while she journeys down to the town of Darling to investigate a cold case murder from the seventies. Almost from the first page the characters gel amazingly well as Ty tries to keep his focus on his keeping her safe while Cress seems hell bent on involving herself in the heart of the rumours in the town.

From the get go it’s clear the town is stuck in their ways and in their eyes there is no place in their town for people of colour. This enrages Cress to the point that she is prepared to take chances. Unfortunately for her, also being with Ty who is an African American standing at well over 6 feet tall they don’t go in-noticed. The trouble starts almost instantly for both of them and it produces a real page turner of a book.

A few chapters in and I didn’t care that Ryan Lock didn’t feature and when he briefly appears in the story I almost wanted him to not get involved because this was Ty’s story to solve and fix the problems. I admit I was surprised just how much I loved this book, it was a fresh take on an old school problem done with class and finesse and showing how a page turner of a book is done! An outstanding book in this series and although this worked I thing Ty and Ryan work best together and produce magic so am looking forward to the next book hugely!

[itchy · Rating 5 out of 5]

brief synopsis:
Ty goes solo (while Ryan takes a holiday) and protects an investigative journalist as she digs up some skeletons in a quaint Florida town closet.

setting:
Darling, Florida
Barbados

named personalities:
RJ - an alligator rancher
Harold Sharmer - RJ's acquaintance back in 1974
Claire Parsons - an elderly librarian
Tyrone 'Ty' Johnson - a six-foot-four retired Marine
Cressida 'Cress' King - an investigative journalist for Larceny; the principal
Barack Obama - the first African-American president of the United States
Michelle Obama - Barack's wife
Gregg - Cress' managing editor; the client
Ryan Lock - Ty's business partner
Carmen Lazaro - Ryan's girlfriend
Adelson Shaw - an elderly man with an impressive mane of white hair
Carole Chabon - a seminary student who was lynched back in 1974
Mary Elizabeth 'Mimsy' Murray aka Queen of Darling - Darling's mayor
Jesus - presumably Jesus Christ
Sue Ann - RJ's wife; a middle-aged waitress with curly red hair
James Patterson - an obvious big name you'd expect to find in the fiction section of any respectable library
Danielle Steel - ditto
Nora Roberts - ditto
JK Rowling* - ditto
Alice Walker - The Color Purple author
Maya Angelou - a big-name African-American author
Toni Morrison - ditto
Timothy French - an idealistic young reporter from Minnesota
Lyle Ray Kincaid** - a short-order cook
Franklin Murray - founder of a slave-trading business
Curious George - a male adult 'gator
Chance - a dedicated white supremacist
Mareta - a Chechen terrorist
Muhammad Ali - Cress' hero
Carnes - a deputy from the County Sheriff's department
McGraw - ditto
Santa Claus - a uniquely dressed imaginary figure
Saddam Hussein - an all-round asshole
Annie Wilkes - a fictional psychopath
Big Bertha - an adult female 'gator
Billie Holiday - an African-American jazz singer
Taylor Branch - Parting the Waters author
Jesse Holland - Invisibles author

*Maybe this is Sean's idea of a joke: mentioning JK Rowling in a sentence with James Patterson, Danielle Steel, and Nora Roberts.
**p56: Finally he shook Ty's hand. "Good to meet you, Mr. Johnson. Lyle Ray."
p184: "Lyle Kincaid. He works at the diner--he was cooking for me...."

construction:
p29: "...Anytime someone walks through that door we don't know it's kind of an event."

p55: If there was going to be a fight, he didn't think it would last long. Although the man's demeanor suggested a fight wasn't what he was looking for. The shiner on his eye told Ty that he might have had one before he'd headed over here.

tech:
p125: The signal had dropped to zero bars and with it the Google Maps navigation that was directing her back to Mimsy's house.
-The GPS signal should be independent of the phone signal.

p230: She didn't know if the fuel they were using was flammable, but Mimsy seemed neurotic about it, and that was all she needed.
-This would be some NASA-level shit if it wasn't.

I'm just glad we have fictional heroes stamping out non-fictional hate groups. (I'm belatedly seeing a curious pattern here.) This gave me that poetic justice fix I've been dying to see.

[Jeff Benham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lock is on vacation with his gorgeous girlfriend, so Ty Johnson gets assigned the task of being body guard for a NY reporter, Cressida King, who is headed down to the Everglades to get the scoop on a 45 year old murder. The victim was a young Black girl, Carole Chabon that was brutally beaten and hung in the quiet town of Darling. Darling was a racist town in the ‘70s and it looks like it still is. Cressida and Ty, both African-Americans, are in for a frosty reception. There is a whole lot more to this story than that, but it turns out Carole was Cressida’s great-aunt. There are several rather ingenious spots of actions that you will read about, but would require SPOILERS to give you a hint. Did I mention a women’s KKK group that seems to be alive and well in Darling? Ty, being an African American in a white supremacy town, causes him all sort of problems. We begin to wonder if the town people ever had contact with the real world. Even from the beginning, it is no secret who is involved with the murder of Carole Chabron. There are a couple people in town that you hope things work out well for, and there are a couple you would hope receive a late nigh visit from the grim reaper.

[Don · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good book that is well written. It takes you on a reporter/ journalist journey into a small FL town that had a strange disappearance of two other black people looking into another murder. Naturally this is a little Lilly white town where the mayor has a stranglehold on its residents. Ty is a natural, acting as a bodyguard to Cressida. 5

[Kevin Maher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ty is the Man

One of the better books I have read lately. The author really puts the character through his paces. This could have been another cutout white supremacist stories. It turned out to be so much more.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books read this year. Zips along, great characters and a moving emotive plot. How Sean Black is not more widely known or published is beyond me but i hope to see and read more of his novels over the coming years. Superb and a book everyone should consider.

[Beach Bum · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good but not great

Started really well, fastish and interesting story, however is slowed down to a crawl mid way and never got going again
Yes things were resolved, loose ends tied up and people brought to justice, but there just seemed to be something missing

[Jeff Kaufman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well plotted. Still difficult to read about this much hate in the world

[David A. Rosow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well done

Ty in action, lots of action. Lock shows up in a small role bu Ty saves the day and of course the girll

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick easy read . Love the Ty and locke stories