THE DEVIL ORDERS TAKEOUT

THE DEVIL ORDERS TAKEOUT

by Bill A. Brier

345 pp. Black Opal Books

Reviewed by Eric Petersen

First time novelist Bill A. Brier makes a memorable debut with this compelling crime thriller. When the rich get into deep trouble with the IRS, they turn to brilliant tax lawyer Grayson Bolt to get them out of it. But he’s about to get into some deep trouble of his own, from which he may not get out alive.

The story begins with Grayson and his wife Sandra leaving for their anniversary vacation. During the drive, Sandra takes the wheel when Grayson gets a migraine. She just barely misses an unusual obstacle in the road – a fallen horse trapped on an icy patch, unable to pick itself up.

Grayson soon finds the horse’s rider – a little girl named Kim – clinging perilously over the edge of a cliff after being thrown by her horse. He tries to get the horse to its feet and make it pull her up. Then her grandfather, a nasty old drunk named Gus Stockard, arrives on the scene and tries to take over.

The old man ends up spooking the horse, which panics, kicks Grayson, and sends Kim to her death. Stockard blames Grayson for killing his granddaughter and vows revenge. Later, back home, Grayson is approached by a prospective client who wants to hire him – ruthless mob boss Mario Costanzo.

When the feds go after mob bosses, many times the mobsters are convicted of tax evasion rather than racketeering, which is much harder to prove. Now the biggest mob boss in New Jersey wants Grayson Bolt to solve his tax problems, but Bolt’s integrity forces him to turn down Costanzo’s generous offer.

Then, Gus Stockard begins stalking Grayson’s home and family, going so far as to give some golf balls to Grayson’s oldest son Troy, a 10-year-old golf prodigy. When he confronts Stockard face to face, Grayson realizes that he’s ready, willing, and able to carry out his threat of vengeance.

Stockard is a disturbed Vietnam veteran who murdered his own son, a vicious wife beating psychopath, to protect his daughter-in-law and granddaughter. When Grayson’s wife Sandra and son Troy are killed in a horrific car accident, he knows that Stockard is responsible, but can’t prove it.

A devastated Grayson strikes a Faustian bargain with Mario Costanzo: he’ll solve the mob boss’s tax problems if Costanzo helps him kill Gus Stockard. When the time comes, Costanzo’s men force Grayson to stab Stockard with a shank – a homemade knife fashioned by prison inmates – instead of shooting him with a gun.

Grayson’s revenge against his love ones’ murderer rings hollow when he discovers the reason for the shank; Costanzo is using it to frame an enemy of his – a career criminal named Ellis Washington who killed one of Costanzo’s men while serving time in prison. Not only that, but Grayson has been placed on the jury with orders to make sure that they convict Washington.

Refusing to allow an innocent man to be convicted for a murder he committed, Grayson cleverly sways the jury to acquit Washington while concealing his own guilt. Mario Costanzo goes ballistic and vows to kill Grayon’s seven-year-old son Jim in retribution.

Grayson cons the mob boss into thinking that Jim is a golf prodigy whom Costanzo will be able to profit from when he becomes a pro. Costanzo relents, but while Grayson desperately tries to turn little Jim – who doesn’t even like golf – into a prodigy, Costanzo plots a sadistic long term revenge full of twists and turns.

Years later, Grayson Bolt will do anything to save his son’s life, including destroying Jim’s relationship with his true love Heather and forcing the pregnant girl to abort their child. Disgusted with his father, Jim runs away to join the army, and after a tour of duty in Afghanistan, returns home a highly decorated soldier with post traumatic stress disorder.

But Mario Costanzo is never far behind and continues to stalk Grayson and his son relentlessly, forcing Grayson to play a deadly game of cat and mouse. When Jim resumes his golfing career and enters the most important tournament he’s ever played in, he soon realizes that the stakes are literally life and death…

With prose that crackles like a roaring fire and unforgettable characters, The Devil Orders Takeout is a riveting, harrowing suspense thriller and a poignant meditation on the futility of revenge that will keep the reader turning pages until the shocking conclusion. Highly recommended!

Eric Petersen is an administrator and blogmaster for the Internet Writing Workshop, an international, online writer’s group run out of Penn State University. You can reach him by e-mail at EricPetersen1970@hotmail.com