Allegiance by Tom Abrahams

Jackson Quick was a bullied kid who struck back. But he toed the line, went to college, and tried to

 

find a calling only to job hop in his early 20’s. A college bud working for the state of Texas and manages to get him a gofer job in the Governor’s office to work on his re-election campaign.  And during a speech, the opponent is the victim of an assassination attempt, but survives.

The Governor takes a liking to Jackson and offers him an assignment that is a bit outside of his job duties. Jackson is to personally. When he makes his last delivery to a woman in Alaska, she opens accesses the iPod, but drops it when she stands. Jackson, trying to be the nice guy, picks it up and returns it then does what he is supposed to do. He leaves and returns to Texas.

But he did see the screen. And it contained a foreign bank name and a number, obviously an account number. And as soon as he gets back to Texas, his life takes a horrific turn. He is kidnapped and tortured by this older Brit who goes by The Saint. What does Jackson know? Who has he told?

Jackson takes the torture, reveals nothing because he knows nothing. The Saint then releases Jackson, but that doesn’t set him free. Paramilitary types are after him now. Looking for someone to turn to for help, Jackson approaches an investigative reporter from Houston and they start peeling back the layers of the onion taking them to an obscure research lab at Rice University to an observatory in far western Texas, and then back to Austin and Houston leaving a trail of bodies in his wake – Jackson turns out to be a formidable target; guess striking back to a bully has some carry over.

This is the first of a series of books about Jackson Quick. This is a well-named newcomer to the thriller genre as Abrahams presents this story in a breathless, rapid-

fire fashion narrative. Doubt this new character will challenge Jack Reacher on the charts, but it certainly is a good choice for to occupy the hours of a long trip. See West Coast Don's reviews of this book as well as its follow-up Allegiance Burned on the blog.

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Allegiance Burned

Allegiance Burned is the second book in a trilogy about Jackson Quick, who could be thought of as a somewhat reluctant assassin, but one who is quite adept in the necessary skills of his trade. The story opens with the murder of a senior scientist in his secret lab which is a mile underground. He’s been studying the use of solar neutrinos, a subatomic particle that has never been harnessed. However, the scientist had apparently made great advances with this technology, but for what purpose? Was it useful to help submarines communicate under water, to detect nuclear weapons in rogue states, or to vaporize the nuclear weapons of one’s enemies? As the story unfolds, Quick is confused by the shifting allegiances and betrayals of the primary characters with whom he is engaged: Sir Spencer, a mysterious figure that seems to be one step ahead of everyone; Bella Francesca, CEO of Nanergetix, the company who had employed the dead scientist; Mack Mahoney, who once was loyal to Bella’s deceased father; and Liho Blogis, the enemy and competitor of Sir Spencer who also wants control of the new technology. As Tom Abrahams captures the confusion of Quick as he sorts through the twists and turns of the plot, so the reader experiences the same disorientation as new information is revealed.

My own standard for assassins is the Alistair MacLean story Where Eagles Dare. That was also a 1969 movie with Clint Eastwood as the main killer. Quick probably did not murder as many men as Eastwood did in that story, but he certainly participates in multiple shootouts where lots of bad guys die. I liked this book significantly more than the first one in the trilogy, and I’m eager to get to the concluding novel, Hidden Allegiance.

Allegiance by Tom Abrahams

Allegiance is the second novel by Tom Abrahams, the best feature being his protagonist Jackson Quick who works for the governor of Texas who happens to be in the midst of a losing battle for reelection. The story opened with an intense sniper shot, and the action continued nearly nonstop throughout. This was not a book to put down despite the fact that I had some problems with it. The authors device was to delay important background information about Quick until near the end of the book, and that finally pulled together how this man had the skills to master violent events which seemed to be well above his pay grade. Quick might have been a more believable character if I had known more about him earlier. Ultimately, this is a dirty politics story in which the two men running for governor will stop at nothing to win since by doing so, they will further enrich themselves and those who are loyal to them. It’s all about the money and power. There were great twists in the plot and subplots which included the oil business in Texas, nanotechnology, and a secessionist movement to make Texas as an independent republic. There was something missing in the dialogue, but like I wrote above, despite my not totally buying into the characters and the storyline, I also needed to know what was going to happen to Quick.