South of Good

by Randall Reneau

Overview

Forced out of the DEA after twenty years, Hardin Steel, Stainless to his close friends, has managed to get himself elected Sheriff of Cameron County, Texas. Twice divorced, with a bit of a drinking problem, he's now dating Rory Roughton, a fiery sixth-generation Texan who's as rich as she is beautiful-and hell-bent on keeping Steel on the straight and narrow. But then his best friend, Wes Stoddard, is nearly shot down flying in a load of pot, Rory is kidnapped by a Russian mercenary working for the most dangerous cartel in Mexico, and the Cuban Mafia decides they'd like the former DEA agent-dead.

Steel is forced to take unsanctioned, unconventional-and mostly illegal-action in order to save himself and those closest to him . . .

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781497342477
Publisher:	CreateSpace Publishing
Publication date:	09/02/2014
Series:	Hardin Steel , #1
Pages:	356
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.74(d)

About the Author

RANDALL RENEAU is the award-winning author of Deadly Lode, Diamond Fields, and Ruby Silver. A one-time international geologist and Vietnam veteran, he lives with his wife, Lynne, in Austin, Texas.

Editorial Reviews

2014-10-24
A Texas sheriff tries to take down a drug lord pushing cocaine across the Mexican-U.S. border and winds up dodging bullets in Cuba and the Cayman Islands in Reneau's (Ruby Silver, 2014, etc.) latest thriller.When pilot and marijuana transporter Wes Stoddard tells Cameron County Sheriff Hardin Steel that he wants to go straight, the sheriff asks for a trade-off: Wes can help the DEA get his boss, Frederick Ochoa. But their plan for Wes to sell DEA-confiscated cocaine back to Ochoa backfires when Russian Alexsie Yazov, who works for Ochoa, decides to steal the coke and, for good measure, kidnap Rory Roughton, daughter of an oil tycoon and Hardin's sometimes-girlfriend. Yazov, however, doesn't release Rory, despite a paid ransom. So Hardin, Wes and PI Buck Bateman initiate a rescue mission in Cuba, made even more dangerous by the fact that Ochoa, still pissed about his missing cocaine, is invested in killing all of them. The novel often feels like a series of action scenes, one trailing after the other: A sting operation begets a double-cross begets retaliation and so on. Where Reneau truly excels is the action: Hardin and his pals enact blistering sequences, from a high-speed boat chase to a quick escape in a seaplane. And these scenes are rife with shocks, as one of the criminals (much worse than Wes) makes an unlikely ally for Hardin (readers should be wary of getting too attached to Hardin's buddies). Regardless of all of the gunfire, as well as the occasional surface-to-air missile, the story generally takes on its protagonist's easygoing nature. It's a lighthearted affair, even considering that there are contracts out on Hardin, Wes and Buck (Hardin calls the trio "contractees"). But there's also a visceral moment or two, because a torturer, like many of the book's characters, will probably suffer a violent reprisal. Reneau concludes the story with a hint that something (or maybe someone) is pending and will return, welcome or not, in Book 2.An effervescent ride chock-full of memorable action and characters.

Kirkus Reviews