Dale Dye, the former Marine who served in Vietnam in 1965 and in 1967-70 and in the mid-eighties re-invented military technical advising in Hollywood (think Platoon, Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers, The Pacific, Born on the Fourth of July, et al.), also has written a slew of novels, including seven in the Shake Davis series.
Sheldon (Shake) Davis is a guy who manages to be where the action is and knows what to do to forestall disaster. In Dye’s seventh and newest in the series, Aztec File (Warriors Publishing Group, $14.95, paper; 280 pp.; $6.99, Kindle), Shake is suspicious about some bad guys who are up to something along the Mexican-U.S. border.
Shake’s suspicions lead him to another problem-solving exercise in the nick of time, which he specializes in. Spoiler alert: At the most extreme point of danger, Shake yells “Bomb!”—which I do not recommend as the first step in dealing with a group of jihadis who have built a huge explosive device out of oil barrels and fertilizer and fuel oil and are on the brink of exploding it in a crowd.
Shake receives an award for his action, which is not the result I predict if you or I did the same thing. We’d get shot or blown up—or both—but Shake gets decorated and afterward everyone eats barbecue and drinks his or her beverage of choice.
This is the best and most exciting Shake Davis novel so far. I enjoyed seeing the jihadis defeated, along with some Mexican gang bangers who are thrown into the mix. They kidnap Mrs. Shake and mistreat her. Their reward for that is brutal and final. Yes, Shake Davis is a “hard man,” but we need such men in hard times.
If you are a fan of Dale Dye’s fine series of thrillers featuring Shake Davis and his band of faithful helpers, buy this book. You will not be disappointed.
—David Willson
Books in Review II 