DON'T POKE THE TIGER

Wilson’s third installment in his Jackson Wade and Dog series follows the former Delta Force operative and his giant canine as they protect an American pop star performing in Thailand.

Jackson “Jax” Wade is enjoying a quiet life living as a “gentleman farmer” growing rice and apples in Chiang Mai alongside his Kuchi dog (fittingly called Dog), with whom he shares a deep and inexplicable psychic connection. When he’s asked to protect Rosie Tick—a popular American singer performing in Chiang Mai—he accepts, knowing that a delusional stalker whom Tick already has a restraining order against may be nearby. Wade stops the assailant before he can accost Tick as she’s partying at a local nightclub after the show, but the brutal beat-down is captured on video by numerous patrons, and the stalker is so humiliated that he vows revenge. Complicating matters is the wastrel son of an American senator (who has aspirations of running for president of the United States) who owes a substantial amount of money in gambling debts to a ruthless Russian crime cartel. To save his own skin, he tips the Russians off with details of a jewel-smuggling operation run by Lily Sullivan, a powerful businesswoman nicknamed the Queen of Jade. Sullivan hires Jax after she’s blackmailed. With numerous criminal groups targeting Wade, he uses his deep connection with his almost supernatural dog to lay down some karmic retribution.

The author delivers a page-turning blend of military fiction and mainstream thriller in this work. In addition to his breakneck pacing and adeptly choreographed action sequences, Wilson has an effortlessly fluid writing style. The elite level of understanding, experience, and military insight the author—a retired brigadier general in the U.S. Air Force—brings to the table is obvious. Here’s just one of countless examples: “I carried a Beretta M9. I like the Sig Sauer P365, but I’ve never used it in a close-in gunfight. In the [Special Operations Group], my primary weapon was a suppressed Sig Sauer MCX-SPEAR LT. It had a telescoping stock and held a twenty-round mag.” While the numerous plotlines get a bit convoluted in spots, the strength of Wilson’s prose compensates. He’s acutely aware of the power of a good phrase—so much so that every chapter is titled with a particularly memorable quote from its text. Additionally, most chapters include revelatory, bombshell-delivering sentences, any one of which could serve as a perfect catchphrase for book cover copy. (Here are just a few examples: “If you hunt the pack, the pack hunts you”; “What can the Tiger Master do for you?”; “If you come for the Queen, don’t miss.”) Wade’s brief carnal experiences, while entertaining, seem a bit unnecessary and unsustainable—but that may be the point. (From one love interest: “Like always, time is against us, and our paths are going in a different direction. You and Dog are where you belong, as I am.”)

Fans of Jack Reacher will love this saga featuring two badass heroes, though only one eats raw chicken for breakfast.