cover image Subverting Justice

Subverting Justice

Don Easton. Dundurn (IPS, U.S. dist.; UTP, Canadian dist.), $11.99 trade paper (408p) ISBN 978-1-4597-3980-2

The high-adrenaline 11th installment (following A Delicate Matter) in Easton’s gritty series featuring Cpl. Jack Taggart, an undercover agent for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, begins just after the murder of Damien Zabat, the head of the Satans Wrath motorcycle gang operating in Vancouver, B.C. Purvis Evans or “Pure Evil or Pure E,” the new leader of the gang, is suspected of being responsible for his death, as well as of ordering the torture and murder of three other people. A message written in blood at the triple-murder scene threatens Jack. Aside from the dangers of trying to bring down Pure E, Jack must also deal with a clueless assistant commissioner who disapproves of his methods and is about to become his new boss. Easton ramps up the action in this installment, with Jack enlisting Mack Cockerill, a Satans Wrath insider, to help him track Pure E’s drug shipments. This is an exciting cat-and-mouse game involving high-level Russians, cocaine traffickers, and local drug gangs. This novel is perfect for readers who want a tense thriller and a realistic view (Easton spent 20 years as an RCMP undercover agent) into the dark mazes where gangs, informants, and undercover cops try to trap each other. (Dec.)