An ex-CIA agent attempts to make amends for his dark past with one last mission to Mexico in James Garmisch’s adrenaline-pumping debut thriller Silver, Lead and Dead. Evan Hernandez feels he has nothing left to lose. Lies and past actions have wrecked his career and caused the death of his family. He sees a chance at redemption when he travels to Juarez to pay a ransom for a family friend. In Mexico, he unwittingly botches an operation run by a covert para-military orginization. The groups aim: to destroy the Eastern Cartel, which is protected by former members of Mexican Special Forces. Evan weighs his options. Should he agree to infiltrate the world of the cartels? Why is the man who killed his family years earlier in Columbia out of prison and in Mexico? Should he Step back into a game that at one time cost him everything? Or will his desire for vengeance lead to his destruction?
Mexico is the perfect setting for well, about anything crime related. Some feel that Mexico is drifting toward a Narco state. I choose Mexico as a setting after reading books like El Narco, the web site Borderland Beat, and hundreds of news stories about acts such as Mexican Special Forces deserting to work for Cartels and gangs trafficking the organs of children. I have also spoken with law enforcement as well as people who live there. The truth is way stranger than fiction. Many of the scenarios in the book come from real life. From Pablo Escobar to Narco subs to the attempt to unite all the Cartels into a Union. All has happened in one form or another.
Thriller.com:
The Bottom Line: Vince Flynn fans will adore this hugely satisfying action thriller about the redemption of an ex-CIA operative in the badlands of Mexico.
Can an ex-CIA agent wash away his past sins with one heroic mission? Or is it as Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin wrote, “A good act does not wash out the bad, nor a bad act the good?”
That’s the question facing Evan Hernandez, a former intelligence operative whose personal sacrifice - and the brutalities he unleashed on his enemies - knew no bounds. As James Garmisch’s terrific Silver Lead and Dead begins, Evan has hit rock bottom. He’s haunted by nightmares and reduced to conveying his darkest fears to his dog, Zeus.
His life takes a new direction when his brother tells him that a man named Armando Gonzalez has been kidnapped in Juarez, Mexico. The elderly man, age 79, is the father of the brother’s housekeeper, who they consider part of the family. Armando is a practical, Godly man who seems more than happy to meet his maker (his awesome proof of life message to his daughter: “I am old. Don’t pay these animals”).
Before long, we find Evan south of the border, looking for the old man’s kidnappers. He soon runs into an old friend who has started something called Dark Clouds. The organization’s stated goal is to destroy a billion-dollar drug cartel, protected by former Mexican Special Forces, that has plagued Mexico for years. To say more would be to spoil the adventure, but along the way, you can bet that Evan will run into old enemies that will demand his attention.
It’s a great setup, but what makes Silver Lead and Dead are the book’s details and characterization. Let’s take Armando’s kidnapper’s, for example. Sure, they are thugs. But Garmisch takes ample time to bring what could have been cardboard characters to life: “Juan looked from the five drugged females to the man he had kidnapped, Armando Gonzales. This was Juan’s first venture into kidnapping, and he was wondering if it was worth it. He and his buddies had not really considered the logistics involved in kidnapping the old man and housing him and at the same time they were working their regular jobs.”
While humanizing nearly every character, Garmisch never slows the pace. Will Evan find the peace he’s looking for, or will he end up - like many of those he cared about - at the business end of an AK-47?
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