Down range A novel

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.)

DEBUT Moore's debut action-thriller delivers both a compelling story and a vivid portrait of the landscape of the High Plains of Texas. Garrett Kohl works as an undercover DEA agent. After a mission goes awry in Afghanistan, he receives orders to protect a witness to the tragic events, which requires a trip home to northwest Texas to see his family. Garrett's relatives seem distant when he arrives. Instead of a receiving a warm welcome from the community, he discovers that a war of a different kind has trapped his family in a seemingly impossible situation. Garrett will have to use all of his skills to save his family from a diabolical enemy who knows the landscape as well as he does, but fighting against the odds is one of this Green Beret's strengths. VERDICT Moore has written a tense and irresistible thriller that fans of C. J. Box and the military action novels of Brad Taylor will savor. The chaos mixes well with a stellar panorama of Texas. Readers will happily look forward to the next installment in what looks to be a series featuring Garrett Kohl and his family's ranch life.--Jeff Ayers, formerly with Seattle P.L.