I am delighted to share my review today of Fearless by M.W. Craven. I adore this author Washington Poe series and I have had Fearless sitting on my Kindle for a while now and decided it was definitely time to get to know this new character.
Ben Koenig is nobody’s hero . . . because he doesn’t exist.
Six years back Ben Koenig headed up the US Marshal’s Special Operations Group. They were the unit who hunted the bad guys. The really bad guys. They did this so no one else had to.
And then one day Ben sold his house, liquidated his assets and disappeared off the face of the earth. He told no one why and left no forwarding address. For six years he became a grey man. Someone you didn’t remember. He drifted from town to town, from state to state, never visiting the same place twice. He was untraceable – officially, he no longer existed.
But now his face is plastered across every television screen in the country. Someone from Ben’s past is going to extraordinary lengths to find him and they don’t care how they do it. They have a job for him, a revenge mission, one Ben won’t be able to refuse.
Because in the hellish heat of the Chihuahuan desert lies a town called Gauntlet. Some people in Gauntlet have a secret and they’ll do anything protect it. And they know Ben is coming.
They’ve killed before and they’ll kill again.
It’s easy to dismiss Ben Koenig as just another drifter, someone you don’t need to concern yourself about. But that would be a mistake. Because Ben has a condition, a unique disorder that means he is incapable of experiencing fear.
And that makes Ben Koenig a different kind of animal . . .
MY REVIEW
I am already a fan of this author and adore the Poe and Tilly books. Fearless is the first book in the Ben Koenig series and is absolutely brilliant. The author does tip his hat towards another fictional character in the early stages of the book, yes there are some similarities to a certain Jack Reacher, but Ben is a character in his own right.
Ben has been off the grid for 6 years and has had a bounty on his head, but when an old colleague tracks him down and asks for his help, Ben has to risk revealing himself again. The synopsis gives a great insight into Ben and what he did and what happened for him to become a drifter, this is expanded on more throughout the book. The main focus, however, is on the task he has been called in to help with and it will take him further into danger, but he has no fear!
This is such an interesting character, and I like the way the author has cast him. Yes, he is a loner, drifter, and invisible man, but there is a lot more to him than that. He is loyal to his friends, ruthless with his enemies and there is a certain amount of no-nonsense charm to him. He is there to get the job done and will put himself in front of a bullet before letting anyone else take the risk.
The past and the present are set out so that as Koenig works on his current task we are also told of his past and how he got the condition he has. While you may think that not feeling fear would be a good thing, it means he puts himself in danger without thinking things through, this also risks those around him. At the time I didn’t think about this but the author has thought of things such as this which make the details of the story even more solid.
The story is set in a small town called Gauntlet in Texas, it has some old stalwarts as well as some newcomers who have set up a solar power business. A missing owner, a missing daughter and a whole lot of dangerous people all add to the suspense of the story and the challenges that Koenig faces. I thoroughly enjoyed this book as it is so full of action from pretty much the start to the finish. The imagery was great and I could visualise the story so easily as I read it.
This is a great first book in a new series by a fabulous author. If you have not read any of his books then you really should if you like crime, mystery and thrillers. It is one I would definitely recommend.
This is my final post before Christmas, I would like to take the opportunity to wish everyone all the very best and I will hopefully be putting my Top Reads of the Year together.
Many thanks for reading my post, a like or share would be amazing 🙂 xx
