"Reid Bennett, police chief of tiny Murphy's Harbor in Canada, is looking forward to a month's vacation. He plans to spend time with his girlfriend Freda and he might even get to go fishing with his dog, Sam.
But then Norma Michaels, the wife of a rich businessman, turns up with a $25,000 offer: find her 20-year-old son, Jason. He has run off with some mercenaries to train for overseas service and she's afraid she has lost him forever. Even though he's of age, she wants him found and she'll pay handsomely. The mercenaries call themselves Freedom For Hire and their leader is a cashiered sergeant from the British paratroopers who now styles himself Colonel George Dunphy. He was court-martialed for brutality, forced out of the service and stands ready to brutalize a bunch of young men while stealing their pay.
Since people like Dunphy annoy Reid he decides to take the job, despite the minor risk of a few ex-SAS men with automatic weapons, but he's more worried that the boy won't want to come home when he's found. There are lots of questions to be answered when he and his German Shepherd head north on the hunt for a few good (or maybe bad) men."
Synopsis
"Reid Bennett, police chief of tiny Murphy's Harbor in Canada, is looking forward to a month's vacation. He plans to spend time with his girlfriend Freda and he might even get to go fishing with his dog, Sam. But then Norma Michaels, the wife of a rich businessman, turns up with a $25,000 offer: find her 20-year-old son, Jason. He has run off with some mercenaries to train for overseas service and she's afraid she has lost him forever. Even though he's of age, she wants him found and she'll pay handsomely. The mercenaries call themselves Freedom For Hire and their leader is a cashiered sergeant from the British paratroopers who now styles himself Colonel George Dunphy. He was court-martialed for brutality, forced out of the service and stands ready to brutalize a bunch of young men while stealing their pay. Since people like Dunphy annoy Reid he decides to take the job, despite the minor risk of a few ex-SAS men with automatic weapons, but he's more worried that the boy won't want to come home when he's found. There are lots of questions to be answered when he and his German Shepherd head north on the hunt for a few good (or maybe bad) men."
Despite its billing as ``A Reid Bennett Mystery,'' this sixth outing for Wood's hard-nosed Canadian cop ( Corkscrew , Live Bait ) is a straightforward action-adventure, depending more on fist-fights, chases and narrow escapes than on unexpected plot turns or intrigues. Bennett, chief of police in cozy Murphy's Harbour, has vacation time coming up, and with his actress girlfriend departing for a film shoot, no plans. Warily, he accepts a private assignment from a rich woman who claims her rebellious son has joined Freedom for Hire, a private band of mercenaries; not sure that he remains in the group by choice, she wants the 20-year-old retrieved. Drawing on his Vietnam experience (and with a stylistic nod or two to Rambo ), Bennett ventures into the hazardous Canadian bush, only to discover that he was probably hired under false pretenses. The author's efficient if unsurprising narrative may satisfy readers who have come this far with the series, but his laconic, tough-guy herogrim, iron-willed, boldis very much a stock character. (Jan.)
