The daughter of an officer and very proud of her military background, Bess is fearless and calm in the terrifying shipwreck scene that begins the novel. On that level, A DUTY TO THE DEAD is a classic.īess Crawford is a beautiful, upper class English girl who volunteers to be a nurse in World War One. Garrett - described as “the Rob Zombie version of Jeremiah Johnson” - makes for a forceful hero in “Down Range,” the beginning of what should be a long-running series.As I get older I often find that what matters most to me about a book is not whether the plot is air tight and the mystery totally plausible, but whether or not the author creates characters you can admire and care about. Garrett discovers that being around family may be his salvation as he learns to be a son, a brother and also a father to his adopted son, Asadi. Garrett finds he and Bridger don’t have to be enemies, and is astounded that Butch treats Asadi as a son, easing the boy’s trauma by caring for their horses. But he also concentrates on his believable characters. Moore melds the thriller and western genres in “Down Range,” punctuating frequent action scenes against vivid scenery that adds to the suspense. The influential Renegade oil company has teamed up with a Mexican drug cartel to smuggle heroin, and Garrett’s attorney brother Bridger is caught in the crosshairs because he refused to represent Renegade. The “rough and unforgiving” Texas Plains has its own war on drugs. Garrett finds the ranch that his family has owned for generations in disarray, his aging father unable to keep up with the work. Garrett hasn’t considered Texas home for years, estranged from his only brother, Bridger, and barely on speaking terms with his emotionally distant father, Butch, the only person who knows Garrett is a DEA agent. Garrett is accompanied by 10-year-old Asadi, the only survivor of the attack that killed his family and entire village. Undercover DEA agent Garrett Kohl knows this all too well in “Down Range,” Taylor Moore’s powerful debut.Īfter years investigating the flow of the opium trade in Afghanistan, Garrett has little choice but to return to Texas’ isolated Llano Estacado region and his family’s ranch while the CIA and DEA deal with fallout from a terrorist attack in which he was involved. Homecomings can be fraught with anxieties, built on the foundation of family history - good and bad - and expectations.
Taylor Moore’s debut novel is “Down Range.”
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