The Silversmith

At the end of Foreign Deceit, the new Sluice County Sheriff was unanimously voted in to the shock of deputies, the people of Sluice County and those living in the resort town of Rocky Points, Colorado (where the department is headquartered). While Deputy Sergeant David Wolf gets an offer, it was not the one he expected. Refusing that offer could be deadly…

This book that takes up where FOREIGN DECEIT left off and it did not disappoint my expectations for this series. The new Sheriff is appointed and that was the compelling start of this action-filled story. I was caught up in this book from that point on. As the suspense built, I could not turn the pages quickly enough (yes, I stayed up after bedtime to read this one!). I knew who the bad guys were, they make that pretty clear, but I did not understand the relationships that caused each person to do what they did or act the way they did.

I am already a fan of this series and I hope it continues to be as great as it has started out. Well done, Mr. Carson!

AfterThought: In spite of being a kindle unlimited member (this author’s books can be read free when you borrow them through ku), I bought this series (after reading the first book) to have in my permanent library. Yes, that is a recommendation!

I have just finished the first two books and am about to start the third, so my comments are based only on this book and the previous one.

I appreciate a good mystery that, although it has evil, does not go into gory, extended detail about the evil perpetrated. Also, I do not like a good book being spoiled by pages of descriptions of sex acts; it adds nothing to the story and makes the reader wonder if the author is describing his/her fantasies. I appreciate that the first two books of this series do not contain either, and I hope the next 8 do not either.

If you’re looking for a couple of good reads, try these two books. Now to start the third in the series…

This is the third of the David Wolf books I have read because somehow I got a free copy of Cold Lake and read that first. There are some things that I really like about this series. First off, David Wolf is not a comic book character. I am pretty tired of the thrillers in which the hero graduated from Harvard with 2 Ph.D.’s at age 23 and then went through SEAL training in 2 months and then became a CIA SOG member before hanging it up to open an outdoors shop in Wyoming. Those books are always lazy because the author can just get past any plot problem be making the hero able to deduce anything and use fantastic skills to eliminate any danger (OK, I liked Jason Bourne when I was a kid). But David Wolf is very believable and his best qualities are morality and bravery. My kind of hero. Carson writes very well with this rapid but not frenetic pacing and a style that is literate enough that I don’t feel like I am reading pulp. I think if I read all 10 I will decide that the worst possible town to live in would be Rocky Points, CO as they have quite a lot of serious and bizarre crime. It’s like watching 10 seasons of CSI which would lead an extraterrestrial to assume that Las Vegas is the bizarre murder capital of the world. This is just fun beach reading. It won’t insult your intelligence and you will enjoy it.

Whew! This felt like a 90 minute action movie that might have been better had it been made to be 120 minutes. It was very fast-paced and testosterone-filled. Things happened, then more things happened, and then it wrapped up and ended.

I enjoyed book 1 and thought I might not read book 2. Then I read book 2 anyway. I like the main character because he’s smart and thoughtful. But I didn’t like him in this book because he came off as vengeful. This book was a heavy hand in action and could have used a firmer hand in details. Because there are a lot of books in this series, I’m guessing I’m fairly alone in wishing for a slower-paced version of David Wolf.

Good news is that this is a quick read for an airplane ride or a beach day.

It’s a testament to the author’s story telling skills that I was able to look past the poor proofreading in his first David Wolf book, FOREIGN DECEIT, and continue on immediately to this one. In the opening chapter of the first book, Jeff Carson uses an action sequence that had me hooked. Even though the story behind that action was deferred due to his brother’s death in a foreign country, the pace of the novel and story did not falter.

In this second David Wolf novel, he brings his brother’s body home from Italy and immediately the suspended story behind the beginning of the first book continues. This book, like the first, is a mystery that focuses more on action than on characterizations. To me, David Wolf is a more human version of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher. Wolf lacks arrogance as well as super human physical traits but is intelligent and abounds in bravery. He is a likable character and it is easy for the reader to be caught up in his quest.

The proofreading was better in the second book than it was in the first and I’m enjoying this series enough to go on straight to the third book. Although this story finishes the episode that started the first book, it was done so well that both books stand on their own. I do not feel as though I must go on to the third book to get a resolution to a cliffhanger, but that I want to go on to find out what other adventures are in store for this likable hero.

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