The Terror of Living

[amazon 0316097888 largeimage]

The Terror of Living is the first novel from Urban Waite, is worth a read, and I look forward to his next book.

Deputy Bobby Drake goes hunting and bumps into a drug haul. One man, hunt, escapes and the hunt is on for Hunt. Lots of other bad people become involved as the trail drags back to lawyers and drug gangsters.

Urban Waite's style and story line make the novel more interesting than the typical gangster/drug thriller. The characters are interesting. You want the hero to succeed. There are times when you want some one of the criminals to return alive to his family. There are enough twists and turns in the story to keep you guessing. I give it an 8 out of 10.

First paragraph

The kid had taken a bus north from Seattle and stood outside studying the bar for a long time, weighing the options. A gust of wind brought the smell of sun-warmed tar from a patch of cracked pavement, the day changing warm to cold, airplanes passing overhead in the afternoon, the sound of jet engines firing and planes taking off from a nearby field. The bar wasn't much to look at, just a two-story clapboard with a rock-and-pebble parking strip. he toed a piece of gravel, thinking it over, then went in.