Into the Fire

Mark Dawson brings John Milton (aka "Eric") to the Outer Hebrides in the amazing 19th book Never Let Me Down Again in the A John Milton Novel Series. 

John meets an older woman at an AA meeting while he's still in Japan. They go to eat and talk, and she reveals she's dying and desperately wants to know if something has happened to her son because his regular phone calls have come to an abrupt halt and she can't reach him. Even after contacting his girlfriend who reported him as missing, there is no information. Since Milton wants to take care of some unfinished business with his old CO in Scotland, he volunteers to try to find him for the woman. She's shocked at his kindness and gives him a photo and all the information she has which is very little. 

You know this isn't going to be an easy find – it never is in Milton's adventures – but he is able to locate a very drunk "Flash", his former CO, who seems to hate the sight of John and implies he knows he's there for a different reason than he actually is. There's no convincing Flash so he departs from their brief unpleasant meeting without settling anything between them. 

He snags a job at a renovated hotel so he can work at finding the missing son on the side. The hotel manager (Chrissie) is a feisty, untrusting sort, but somehow John manages to get the job which lasts until the lights go out on the celebratory crowd at their re-opening gala. The local schlub who did the rewiring won't be back to fix it anytime soon. 

John is able to make some inquiries and finally convinces the girlfriend of the missing man to speak with him, and she brings a journalist with her to their meeting. Things have gotten mysterious in a hurry, and John's investigations are turning up suspicious information and eventually dead bodies. 

When he's finally able to convince Flash of his true intent, they figure out a plan to make things right. 

The result of their plan surprises both of them but perhaps John most of all. The sort-of cliffhanger will lead into the big plans for the grand 20th book in this fabulous series with the working title Bulletproof.  

John Milton is the character every woman who desires a real man's man wants to love. Mark has given him such unique qualities from Milton's personal past as a boy, a young man, a soldier, an operative, a highly trained assassin in the elite Group 15 of British Intelligence where he became Number One in the Group. But the life finally got to him and he dropped out. The former leader of Control wanted him gone but no one could accomplish it, and he's been on the run for years and fighting the by-product of those years when he succumbed to alcoholism just to cope. Milton keeps himself away from romantic commitment because he doesn't want anyone special in his life to be in danger and used as leverage. He's already witnessed some people he cared about suffer the consequences of knowing him. John Milton is right on the Top 5 list of great heroes in the thriller genre. You won't be wasting your reading time if you start at the beginning and read them all including the prequels. You can find the reviews of those previous18 books on this blog. 

Profanity present. 

Father, please continue to bless Mark's hands as he writes his stories. You've gifted him and may he know that's where his talent originated. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.