Into the Fire

Blackout by Mark Dawson, Book 10 in the John Milton Series, begins at the cook shack for taxi cab drivers in London.

John Milton (aka John Smith) has resumed his graveyard shift as a cook in the nook provided as the rest stop for weary taxi cab drivers who need a bite and a cup of tea as they continue to wait for customers. As he's closing up shop one evening, a man approaches to tell him of a woman John once knew intimately. She hopes to meet him in Manila to introduce him to the son John never knew he had. Their association was many years ago when he was an operator in Group Fifteen. A conversation is arranged between them and John agrees to meet her in the Philippines. 

Admittedly, John's actions seem a bit reckless for him, but he can't deny his affection lingers for the woman (Jessica). When a meeting place is set, John's slightly suspicious at the chosen locale, a dive bar, but it's refreshing to see her again after all this time until he awakens in his hotel room with two emptied bottles of vodka and what looks like a struggle took place with a dead person in his bathroom. No memory at all of anything after their initial meeting. It appears and feels like he's hungover, but the last drink he remembers consuming was a glass of orange juice. 

Things only get worse from that point as he slowly begins to realize he's been set up, and his only help depends on the honest female cop (Josie Hernandez) who arrested him, but there's no information he can supply for her until he can figure out what's happening. As he learns who's behind it all, Josie has begun to realize just how deep the corruption goes in her department and suspects that John isn't guilty of this murder. But if she can't get him the help he requests, it's only a matter of time before he's dead. 

In Blackout John is finally joined by Hicks and Ziggy in a treacherous scheme that could go wrong in so many ways. Josie desperately wants to survive this situation within the law's parameters, but it seems no one in law enforcement is of the same mind. When her little boy is threatened, things change for Josie. 

The interesting part about John in this story is his beginning to recognize how much of his past is in his present, that what he was so good at and what it took to be that man – Number One in Group Fifteen – surfaces as necessary. That icy cold stare that's become his trademark was earned death by death. He was – and is, or can be – a killer. And when he decides that death is the reward for evil, he takes care of that evil. Remorse isn't part of it when the person deserves the end he receives. Making peace with it all has proven impossible for John even as he realizes the facts. 

Blackout is a bona fide thriller with a torturous path to vindication and justification. Another good one from Mark Dawson.

Profanity present.

Father, please keep blessing Mark and seeking those whose hearts are willing to see what you've given to us all. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.