Once again, Kevin Tipple wrote the review for today. Tomorrow, I’ll have Treasures in My Closet, but here’s my warning. It doesn’t include any physical books, just the November releases I had time to read and review before I moved. But, it’s a start to get back to normal!

Thank you, Kevin, for the review of Hawke’s Prey by Reavis Z. Wortham.

Unbeknownst to the good citizens of Ballard, Texas, as Hawke’s Prey: A Sonny Hawke Thriller
by Reavis Z. Wortham begins, terrorists have crossed the nearby border and then violently
crashed through a nearby temporary border patrol checkpoint leaving bodies in their wake. While
snowstorms and blizzards happen in this part of Southwest Texas, this one is a rare and massive
super powered storm. The blizzard is not going to stop them from attacking and seizing the
Presidio County Courthouse and taking those who survive the initial assault as hostages.

That includes Kelly Hawke, a teacher, and her civics class from the local school. That also means
her own kids are also now held hostage with her and their fellow classmates in the occupied
building. A legendary courthouse that is now occupied and full of innocent people, many
terrorists, and a local legend in his own right, Sonny Hawke. The Texas Ranger is Kelly’s
husband, father of their kids, and the only member of law enforcement in the building. The
terrorists do not know that he is inside as he works to let Sheriff Ethan Armstrong know what is
going on while doing recon and eliminating a terrorist or two along the way.

This book can pretty much be summed up as taking the concept for the movie Die Hard, making
the setting a multilevel courthouse in far southwest Texas, make the terrorists homegrown and
domestic with respective agendas, and let chaos ensue. This is a not a deep read nor is it intended
to be as the thriller shifts among many points of view. Many of the characters are two
dimensional and, as often happens, at least one of the on-site terrorist leaders is certifiably nuts.
Of course, many of the foreign terrorists hate America for various sins while the home-grown
ones seek to start a revolution that will, somehow, change America to what they believe were the
good days back a couple of hundred years ago. This is billed as a thriller so one expects a lot of
stereotypes and shallow characters as the focus is on constant action.

One is not disappointed in that as Hawke’s Prey: A Sonny Hawke Thriller by Reavis Z.
Wortham powers along the violence increases and events spiral out of anyone’s realistic control.
A plan is only good until first contact with the enemy and that point is taught repeatedly
throughout the entire read.
A tad jingoistic and more than a bit simplistic, Hawke’s Prey: A Sonny Hawke Thriller by
Reavis Z. Wortham, despite the negatives for this reader, is an entertaining read. Might make a
great movie though Bruce Willis is a bit old now for Hawke. He could easily be Sheriff Ethan
Armstrong who is hamstrung by the intense weather and a lack of resources as well as trying to
keep the locals from excising their second amendment rights on their own.

Material supplied by the Grauwyler Park Branch of the Dallas Public Library System.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2020, 2023