cover image Down Range

Down Range

Taylor Moore. Morrow, $27.99 (352p) ISBN 978-0-06-306650-2

Moore’s strong debut and series launch opens in Afghanistan, where undercover DEA agent Garrett Kohl is on assignment investigating opium production. When Kohl bucks protocol by intervening in a terrorist attack and rescuing a 10-year-old boy, the CIA rushes the agent and the boy out of the country as it tries to deal with the incident’s political fallout. Kohl heads home with the traumatized child to the remote Llano Estacado region of Texas, where his ranching family has lived for generations. But things are changing in the Panhandle, and Renegade Oil & Gas Services, one of the companies that hold sway in the region, has gone rogue and made a deal with a Mexican drug cartel to help smuggle heroin into the States. Kohl’s semi-estranged attorney brother is targeted when he refuses to represent Renegade, whose truck drivers have been caught with large quantities of narcotics. Things culminate in an exciting, Texas-style showdown between Kohl’s family, cartel sicarios, and a host of other bad actors. Fans of J. Todd Scott and C.J. Box will want to check out this propulsive, character-driven thriller. Agent: John Talbot, Talbot Fortune Agency (Aug.)