THE KENNEDY RIFLE

The first installment of Brandon’s saga features Phoenix-based ballistics expert Michael Cole in an un-put-down-able thriller noir.

Cole knows Kate Marlowe is trouble. Two thugs have already visited his office and beat him up, warning him to stay away from her or else. But when the divorced legal secretary from Houston shows up shortly thereafter—“Blonde hair and long legs was all he could see. That was enough”—Cole decides to hear what she has to say; he’s almost immediately hooked. He has an obsession with the JFK assassination—his father was in Dealey Plaza back on November 22, 1963, and was allegedly hit with a stray bullet. Cole even wrote a controversial book about the assassination. So when Marlowe tells him that she has the actual rifle that killed the president and she now wants nothing more than to prove there was a grand-scale conspiracy, Cole agrees to help. The weapon is hidden on a remote ranch in southern Arizona; all they have to do is find it. But there are those who will do anything to keep the truth from being revealed—even it if means mass murder. Although the duo’s relentlessly paced quest is daunting, not to mention historically monumental, Brandon adds gritty humor to counterbalance the thematic gravity. A thug, for instance, is described as “an ethnic mix, maybe half-Asian and half-Rottweiler.” Ultimately, this tightly plotted, action-packed thriller will appeal to crime-fiction aficionados, fans of mainstream thrillers and conspiracy theorists in particular. A cast of brilliantly developed characters, intriguing speculation and bombshell plot twists will keep readers turning the pages until the very end of this starkly realistic, desert-hot thrill ride.

Sexy, savvy and utterly satisfying.