NO SAFE GROUND

A middle-aged veteran’s quiet life ends when his daughter begs him for help.

Once he’d served in Special Forces, Reynolds Packard could never settle down. Leaving his wife and young daughter Vida behind, he spent years as a long-haul trucker. Now, he works as a limo driver and lives in a neglected, filthy house in a small New York town near his only friend, his cousin Mitch, a retired state trooper who wants to be known as Millie. Vida turns up AWOL after being wounded with her roommate, Haley Flynn, in an IED incident in Iraq. It’s not that she’s afraid of going back. Despite some memory loss, she remembers that the man who shot Haley as they lay injured was an American soldier. She wants Pack to help get more information before she goes to the police with her patchy story. When she gets no encouragement from him, she takes off during the night with his pistol, heading for the VA hospital in Albany where she seeks the medic who was Haley’s boyfriend. The medic is not much help, but Haley’s mother, who lives nearby, is happy to take in Vida and talk about Haley. When Mrs. Flynn is brutally murdered, Vida plans to make a run for Canada. She ends up hiding from the police in an Albany State dorm, where Pack tracks her down and offers to help. Now, Pack and Vida must worry about the Army, the police and a ruthless killer who wants to shut Vida up for good.

Fans of Pomeroy’s Abby Silvernale (Cold Moon Home, 2007, etc.) will welcome another strong heroine who must overcome physical and mental challenges to survive.