Rules by Dustin Stevens is the third in the A Ham Novel Series.
"Ham", as you may recall is former military, but now is a "fixer" for private hire. Her contact Mikey is also former military who hooks her up with private requests to solve problems. Sometimes those assignments are easier than others, straightforward, no complications. More often than not they take some odd turns and information is scarce, and this might call for extraordinary measures to determine the solution.
Ham has been anxious for what seems like a long time, waiting for a new assignment. When her anxiety level spikes, she's more than the handful she normally is. I can't call Ham a sociopath because she does display occasional emotion and rare sentiment, but her upbringing didn't allow for a lot of that, and she's been trained well to avoid it. When Mikey finally calls, she's over-ready to get rolling. This time? Las Vegas. Probably the only place an aging gangster, a paralyzed former detective, a released killer, a wealthy, conniving businessman, and a hired assassin would find themselves intertwined.
When Ham meets the former detective, she can tell that if there was any possible way he could manage to do this, he would already have started. But since he can't, and he knows it, he explains the circumstance and hands over a file to Ham. As with most who come in contact with her, they have no idea what she's capable of, and that's just as well for her.
To her frustration, she's forced to contact Mikey repeatedly for information that his tech guy can provide, and also needs some things "cleaned up" when two hired amateurs attempt to come between her and a potential victim.
One thing about Ham, she won't stop until the job is done. Period. She's a well-written character, unique, and beyond tough. She's dangerous to anyone who opposes her. Dustin Stevens hasn't written a Ham novel (he's added other stories to his different series) in a while and in this one he seems to make her "harder" than usual which is a shame because I think in the two previous novels, he had her demeanor just right. And, for me, who is clearly on the opposite side of this author's political leanings, I don't appreciate it when he injects his "subtle" opinions. Also, I've yet to figure out why "hell" is capitalized repeatedly. Aside from those annoyances, I can say the last segment of this novel is exactly the kind of ending you want to see happen as it slips into thriller mode. It's fast-developing after all the stops and starts of Ham's dilemmas on this assignment and concludes sucessfully with a potential promise for the next story.
Some profanity.
Father, you are the gifter. Clearly, you've given Dustin talent. May he know the One who gives it to him. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.
Into the Fire 