Monday, September 26, 2016

Phillip Thompson -- Outside the Law

Outside the Law is an original novel, not a reprint.  (Brash Books is doing a lot more originals these days.)  It's set in a rural Mississippi county that has more murders per week than Sheriff Dan Rhodes sees in years.  Someone's ripping off meth dealers who work for the Memphis mob and then someone's killing the dealers as an object lesson.  It's a good thing Sheriff Colt Harper is more like Raylan Givens than Dan Rhodes.

Harper is a man with a troubled past and his own moral code, and that means sometimes he doesn't mind doing things that are outside the law, especially when it comes to killers like the man called Hack.  Also pursuing Hack is Molly McDonough, who's gone rogue from her job at the FBI.

There are survivors in the end, but hardly anyone comes out unscathed in this fast-moving story (I read it in two sittings).  Thompson provides lots of gunplay, snappy dialogue, and plenty of intriguing characters.  Good stuff.  Check it out.

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