Book Review: A Dangerous Man by Charlie Huston

Disclaimer: I have no intentions of turning this blog into a book review blog. There's already enough of those out there. Instead, I'd rather tell my readers about other great books that are out there. Nor am I going to give you a blow-by-blow commentary as many reviewers tend to do. I suppose I should disclose how I'd rate the books I've read. In that case, let's just go with a generic 5-star system. Five stars is a great book. Three stars is average and one star plain sucks. This book would definitely get five stars.

Last night, I finished reading A Dangerous Man by Charlie Huston. This is the third book in the Henry Thompson series. I haven't read the first two books, but I've already ordered them from Amazon. If you enjoy hit man books, then this one is a must read. Also, you don't have to read the first two in order to enjoy the action in this book. There was some backstory mentioned that I suspect was covered in the previous books, but that didn't hinder this story much at all. If anything, it piques the reader's curiosity to discover what happened earlier and encourages them to purchase those books to find out. At least, it did with me.

In this book, we follow Henry Thompson as he fights to kick his pill habit. Henry has somehow been blackmailed into working as muscle for a Russian mobster named David. Henry's mentor is another Russian, an enforcer named Branko. His face has been reconstructed so he is not recognizable as his former self. Obviously, there was major shit that went down in the previous books and Henry has quite a few enemies looking for him. Henry is tasked to shadow a rising rookie baseball player named Miguel, who has a gambling problem and his friend, Jay. Henry's task: to protect Miguel and Jay from getting into trouble because David has taken an interest in the athlete. Needless to say, trouble ensues and Henry has to handle it. Man, does he handle it!

In addition, David's sister-in-law, Anna, keeps pestering David to avenge his nephew's death. A death that came from the hands of Henry. Eventually, Anna enlists the help of her family. Two of her relatives come to America to search for Henry and make him pay for what he did to Anna's son. Again, this is backstory probably detailed in a previous book, but Huston does a stellar job of quickly alluding to what happened. The men find Henry, but only after David tasks him with eliminating Anna.

That's all I really want to say about the story. Believe me when I say that there is plenty of action and sub-plots happening. Like I've said, if you're into hit man novels, this is one you should definitely read. I intend to put up more posts about good crime books I've read, so stay tuned and thanks for stopping by.