Into the Fire

Brothers in war are family, and Jerry White was and is Jon's brother. However, after not hearing from him for years, Jerry shows up in a stolen car tailing him. Jon puts a quick stop to that and is surprised to find it's a frantic and terrified Jerry seeking refuge with Jon after escaping from a psych ward known as Wittenden Institute. What happens behind those sealed doors is a mystery, but what has happened to Jerry is clearly a psychotic break generating real fear for his life. When Jon realizes his friend is in serious trouble, he feels stymied in trying to help him as the institute's doctor and security come for him at Reznick's home. 

Jon knows he must help Jerry, but he's warned off by FBI Asst. Director Martha Meyerstein. Enlisting the help from his former NSA hacker, he gets a general blueprint for Wittenden and realizes what little he's learned smacks of a CIA operation to create super-soldiers programmed to do their bidding. Transported from a Florida clinic to the New York location, certain victims begin their "treatment" with experimental brainwashing torturous techniques conducted by their infamous creator. 

The plan to spring Jerry requires immense effort and only partially succeeds. Calling in all kinds of favors and eventually getting assistance from Martha's contacts, he hopes Jerry can finally get the real help he needs. 

In Hard Fall Jon experiences another loss after trying everything he could do to seek help for his friend who stood by him after Jon lost his wife on 9/11. The only positive is sharing the loss with his daughter Lauren. 

I don't usually experience tearful responses within the pages of thrillers. But I must admit there were a couple of those in Hard Fall. Let me leave you with this quote as Jon meditates on people like his mom and dad: 

   He thought of their lives. Ordinary men and women. People who toiled. And endured. Nobodies. Far from it. They were, in his eyes, giants. Quiet, unassuming, hardworking, upstanding, strong, and honest. The real America. The unsung. They were people who had built America. The people who had fought for America. And its values. Through hard work, sacrifice, and love.  (Jon Reznick in Hard Fall)

You can attack Jon Reznick, you can try to best him, but the only way you can truly get to him is to hurt his daughter Lauren. After that, any restrictions you attempt to apply to him won't matter and will have no effect. When it comes to her, nothing will stop him from getting justice. Nothing. No one. 

Lauren is jogging in New York City when she's struck by a hit-and-run driver who puts her in the hospital with a life-threatening head injury. Jon is by her side when she comes to, but her condition quickly regresses and she's put into a medically induced coma to relieve the trauma to her brain. The doctors can't give Jon a sure report about her recovery, and this puts Jon on the hunt for the driver. 

The identification of the driver is inconclusive, but the car is one used by a Ukrainian diplomat. Jon seeks out the detective on the case, and she is helpful but limited in what she can do because of the presumed driver's diplomatic immunity.

FBI Assistant Direct Martha Meyerstein gets involved but primarily in a cautionary position after rescuing him post-intimidation of the diplomat. Deep down she knows she can't really influence him in the matter, but she does in fact care about what happens to him and his daughter. 

Surprises await the reader in Hard Hit with plenty of personal realizations from Jon, his daughter, and even Martha Meyerstein. This former Delta soldier, this man who becomes introspective with his daughter's life on the line, who acts instinctively based on his training – this high-functioning, Dexedrine-stimulated, and devoted, loving father – is at a point where he must realize on a personal level it might be time to move on from the old pain of losing his wife. While not thoroughly convinced of it by the end of this story, it's beginning to make an inroad to his thoughts. 

Again, let me leave you with this excerpt of Jon thinking of his father:

     His father had the frontiersman spirit. He didn't want hand-outs. He didn't want charity. He had believed that an able-bodied man shouldn't rely on anyone. It was a matter of honor. A matter of pride. But most of all, it was about what it means to be an American. 

Profanity definitely present.

Father, thank you again and again for your writers/authors. Only you know hearts. Thank you for the stories, and please continue to bless J. B. with more of them. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.