Into the Fire

Firewalk by L. T. Ryan and Brian Shea addresses the modern-day horror of human trafficking. 

Hatch starts out her new life anonymously until she's forced to make up her name on the fly. Grabbing her beloved niece's first name and coupling it with a former young cop's last name, she quickly becomes Daphne Nighthawk – at least temporarily. A quick stop at a gas station yields a pretty teenager showing signs of distress and intentionally dropping a school pin as she's nearly dragged to a waiting vehicle. When the car pulls away, Hatch, aka Daphne, retrieves the pin and figures out the exclusive school it represents. Approaching that school to verify the whereabouts of the young girl who dropped it proves to be difficult and irritating, but finally yields valuable information on who the girl is and that she is in fact missing. Next stop takes her to the police station. 

At the local police station, Hatch faces ineptitude and condescension by the man in charge of the investigation, insisting she probably just ran away for a few days. Her final stop is the girl's home located in an exclusive area with gated mansions. She approaches the home and requests to speak to the parents stating that she has information about the girl, but the security guard proves to be a bundle of hostility and refers her to the police. Turns out he shouldn't have messed with Hatch. 

Through a clandestine conference with the girl's mother, she gathers the woman is basically a hostage herself by a controlling husband, but the woman decides to trust Hatch and her promise to bring her daughter home.

The abhorrent underworld of human trafficking is revealed when Hatch teams up with a Private Investigator who likes to fake who he is. When Hatch realizes he's far more clever and insightful than she first gathered, having fallen for his first guise, she begins to trust him. 

Firewalk is not a fun story, and the treachery and disregard for human life – especially of those who are young and attractive – explore the absolute base desires of sinful man. Hatch is at her best when she has a noble purpose before her. Being a woman dedicated to keeping her seldom made promises, she knows there are only so many opportunities in this life to right a wrong. If she can, she will, or she will literally die trying. 

Having left behind the family she'd grown to love and the man who stole her heart in order to keep them all safe from the group who killed her father, she misses them terribly and wonders if there will ever be a way to return to them. She must quickly set those thoughts aside as she continues on her journey being someone else. 

Hatch is an amazing character, hard-headed but tender-hearted, tough as any good soldier but vulnerable just the same. Firewalk is Book 5 in this series and each segment allows us to see another part of Rachel Hatch. 

Father, you know everyone's heart, how they view things, how they handle life. Only you can save souls. We're all desperate for you whether we know it or not. Please bless L. T. and Brian as they write stories of the good and evil in men's hearts. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.