THE DEVIL’S RIGHT HAND

A hard-boiled debut about a bounty hunter everybody loves to hunt, especially cops.

There’s something about Jack Keller, embittered Gulf War vet and peerless bail bondsman, that sticks in the collective craw of the Fayetteville, North Carolina PD. Maybe it’s his attitude: a look in his eye that seems to say he’s cut tougher-than-you down to size. Jack’s trying to nail Dwayne Puryear, who’s skipped on a Breaking and Entering, when suddenly he’s being rousted. Officer Wesson, virtuoso of the kidney-battering baton, hauls Jack into court on a spurious charge of resisting arrest. Bailed out by his beautiful, enigmatic boss, Jack resumes pursuit of the evasive Dwayne, who, partnered with his even more thuggish cousin Leonard, has moved up from B&E to Armed Robbery, a mistake with violent ramifications. For the sake of his modest payroll, the Puryears have murdered the elderly, inoffensive owner of a small cutting-and-hauling business whose sons turn out to be a pair of extremely vengeful Lumbee Indians. The latter pair chases the former, catching Jack in between. Bullets fly, body bags fill, and the plot thickens, but character development remains on hold.

Jack’s first is better than run-of-the-mill, though not by a lot.