CHARLIE MINTO'S PYRAMID SCHEME

In Carroll’s thriller, a recent law school graduate seeks revenge for his sister’s gang-related homicide.

It’s 2021, and Charlie Minto is looking forward to a bright future in El Paso, Texas, when tragedy strikes him again. A decade ago, when he was 16,his parents were killed by a drunk driver. Charlie worked through his grief by completing a tour in Afghanistan as a U.S. Marine, then graduated from the University of Texas School of Law. Now, he’s studying for his bar exam when he learns that members of a drug cartel murdered his sister, mistaking her for an enemy target. He has little faith in the ongoing police investigation and employs a group of vigilantes to address the crime in their own way. They use a whiteboard to track their targets: “One heading was CAPTURED/OUR CUSTODY and a second heading read CAPTURED/FBI CUSTODY.…The last column heading was KILLED, with no names or photos.” Before long, Charlie’s squad fills in this last column. Carroll’s novel aspires to be an action-packed thriller, offering many twists and turns to keep the reader engaged. However, many of the plot turns will be familiar to genre fans. As complications and moral dilemmas arise, readers may wonder why Charlie and his group didn’t foresee them from the start: What happens if there are witnesses? What happens if relatives, children, and people not directly involved in the cartel are put in harm’s way as they hunt the bad guys down? What happens if a member of Charlie’s team—who all have regular day jobs—is shot or killed? An obligatory romance is included between Charlie and Stephanie Reyes, who’s innocent of wrongdoing but whose brothers work for the cartel. Readers may find it difficult to believe that the couple falls in love so easily, considering that Charlie’s vigilante group is holding her hostage and going after members of her family.

An ambitious but ultimately predictable actioner.