Ted Quantrill is a human weapon. He has been a soldier, a commando, and, finally a hit man for the United States government.
But a man can grow tired of killing, and Quantrill has turned his back on the past. Here in the rugged wilderness of the Southwest, he plans to make a new life for himself and the woman he hopes to marry.
But yesterday won't let him alone. To preserve his life, he'll have to kill again. And his target is a good friend, as well-trained and deadly as he is...
Dean Charles Ing was an American author, who usually wrote in the science fiction and techno-thriller genres.
He earned a bachelor’s degree from Fresno State University (1956), a master’s degree from San Jose State University (1970), and a Ph.D. from the University of Oregon (1974). It was his work in communication theory at the University of Oregon that prompted him to turn to writing in the 1970s.
Dean Ing was a veteran of the United States Air Force, an aerospace engineer, and a university professor who holds a doctorate in communications theory. He became professional writer in 1977. Ing and his wife lived in Oregon.
Much of Ing's fiction includes detailed, practical descriptions of techniques and methods which would be useful in an individual or group survival situation, including instructions for the manufacture of tools and other implements, the recovery of stuck vehicles and avoidance of disease and injury.
In addition to his fiction writing, Ing wrote nonfiction articles for the survivalist newsletter P.S. Letter, edited by Mel Tappan. Following in the footsteps of sci-fi novelist Pat Frank, Ing included a lengthy nonfiction appendix to his nuclear war survival novel Pulling Through.
In Ing’s fiction, his characters are involved with scientific or engineering solutions and entrepreneurial innovation, elements drawn from his own experience. A lifelong tinkerer, designer, and builder, he was an Air Force crew chief and a senior engineer for United Technologies and Lockheed. His characters know how things work, and they use ingenuity and engineering to solve situational challenges. Ing's work reflects the Oregon traditions of self-reliant independence and suspicion of authority.
“Since I deplore the voracious appetite of the public for entertainment-for-entertainment’s sake,” he told an interviewer in 1982, “most of my work has a clear didactic element. . . . I believe that Jefferson’s ideal of the independent yeoman farmer should be familiar to every generation because I mistrust a technological society in which most members are thoroughly incompetent to maintain the hardware or the software.”
Another good action thriller by Dean Ing; this one (third, I believe, in the “Quantrill” series) taking place after World War 4 in a United States in the process of recovery. Quantrill is a part-time government agent in search of a major drug dealer from Mexico who is mainlining drugs through the “wild country” that is a major part of Texas. Another major character is the giant GMO boar known as Ba’al that stands nearly six feet tall at the shoulder. An enjoyable romp.
I first read this trilogy a few decades ago and really enjoyed it; still do! This last entry to the series focuses upon wild country, giving it an old wild west feel. Loved Ba'al.
Good end to the series. I have always wondered if the author will write more in this series. I always liked Ba'al the pig, and hope to hear more of his exploits.