Wired

by John Hollenkamp

In Queensland, Australia, cab driver Darren Mangan receives an unexpected message from his old friend Nick Powell. Nick is in a difficult situation, but what he reveals to Darren is only half the story.Indigenous police detective Joel Shallowater returns to work after recovering from near fatal wounds on his previous case. Unhappily assigned to the recently formed Criminal Gangs Squad, he also has to deal with a newcomer. Tessa Jones is also an indigenous cop, but her silver-spoon upbringing and attitudes challenge Joel’s more ground-level view of where he comes from. In France, handsome university student and devout Muslim Haroun Ibrahimi is surprised by a visit from a classmate. Angelique is a stunning young woman of Arabic descent. Though not of his faith, she intrigues and arouses Haroun.Khalil Bouhouche is less devout than his best friend Haroun. Increasingly alienated and alarmed as his ‘blood brother’s’ beliefs grow more extreme, Khalil is unwittingly drawn into a plot to commit mass murder on the other side of the world. In a race for the truth, who will stop the impending slaughter of innocent travelers and backpackers sandwiched on the decks of a passenger ferry off the coast of North Queensland?The explosive third and final Darren Mangan thriller.

416 pages, Paperback

Published May 5, 2020

About the author

John Hollenkamp created The Darren Mangan Thriller Series with STEALTH, followed by A TROPICAL CURE, and now a third in the Series, WIRED. Darren is a dry-witted, good-looking Queenslander, (some people think he resembles the chap in Magnum PI, Tom Selleck) except a cabdriver doesn't make the same coin as a Hollywood actor. And that's where Darren's life runs a fine balance between good and a little bad...
Rich in colloquial dialogue, and coarse language, the stories reflect a realistic part of 'hard bloke' blue-collar Australia, set from Sydney's Manly & the Northern Beaches, to the South Coast of NSW before ending up in Tropical North Queensland.

John Hollenkamp's stories feature colourful, fictional characters. His crime-fiction stories are played out on the fringes of the gritty and shadowy world of Australia's underbelly, Outlaw Motorcycle Clubs, the Italian Mafia and characters of ill-temperament. Violence and coarse language do feature in his sharp, and 'pull no punches' style of writing...as do characters that will make your skin crawl. After all, that's real life.

With A TROPICAL CURE, the second in the Darren Mangan Thriller Series he features the introduction of Joel Shallowater, a young Indigenous cop from the suburbs of Townsville, with a dry sense of humour who has a penchant for cutting right to the chase with justice in mind.

Strap in, John's style of writing is fast-paced, full of twists and turns.

Reviews

[Jennifer (JC-S) · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Everything had been a rush this morning.’

Fasten your seatbelt. You are in for quite a ride. If you haven’t already met Darren Mangan, then I strongly suggest reading ‘Stealth’ and ‘A Tropical Cure’: you’ll get to know some of the characters so much better, and to appreciate Darren’s backstory.

In this, the third and (Mr Hollenkamp tells me, final) Darren Mangan thriller, there are a few different strands to follow. There’s Darren himself, in Townsville, driving his cab minding his own business when his old mate Nick Powell gets in touch. Nick is in trouble: he just does not know how much.

Also, in Townsville, Detective Joel Shallowater, returns to work after recovering from near fatal injuries on his previous case. Joel is unhappy about being assigned a desk job for two months. He has been assigned to the newly formed Criminal Gangs Squad with Inspector Richard Wilder, and a new team member. Like Joel, Tessa Jones is indigenous, but her experiences have been vastly different.

And in France, Haroun Ibrahimi, a devout Muslim, is becoming more extreme. His friend, Khalil Bouhouche, is unwittingly drawn into a terrorist plot involving the mass murder of tourists on the ferry between Townsville and Magnetic Island.

I have read all three of the Darren Mangan novels and enjoyed them all. This novel is more complex than the previous two, and while it took me a while to ‘get into’ the French connection, it fits neatly into the whole. Once I started reading, I found it very hard to put down. As the action moves between characters and situations, I kept turning the pages to try to work out how it was going to end and who might survive.

There’s plenty of action in this novel, as well as tragedy, double-dealing, and some ruthless criminals. There’s murder and mayhem, and an ending that had me wanting to reach into the story and change one aspect of what might happen next. Sigh.

Highly recommended.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

[John Hollenkamp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Authors aren't supposed to review their own work. But I really enjoyed telling this particular story. In the aftermath, there's always thoughts about how you could have made it better. But I like it just the way the story unfolds.

Fast...unpredictable...