The Good Kill by Kurt Brindley – Book Review

The Good Kill by Kurt Brindley – Book Review

The Good Kill by Kurt Brindley

The Good Kill
A Killian Lebon Novel

Author – Kurt Brindley
Pages – 404
Released – 1st May 2019
ISBN-13 – 978-1096449034
Format – ebook, paperback
Reviewer – Ed Sheehan
Rating – 3 Stars
I received a free copy of this book.
This post contains affiliate links.

 

During the battle to liberate Mosul from the brutal grip of the Islamic State, Killian Lebon, a war-weary Navy SEAL Senior Chief, sustains life-threatening injuries from an explosion during a rescue operation that goes horribly wrong.

Forced into early retirement from a vocation that for almost twenty years had been his sole purpose for being – that of a fearless warrior in defense of his country – Killian’s life quickly spirals downward to the deepest depths of hopelessness and despair due to the traumatic after-effects of his injuries and the overwhelming guilt he feels from the tragic consequences of his failed final mission.

Left without the will to continue on within such a dark and indifferent world, Killian attempts what he expects will be his last and ultimate mission. But RJ, a woman he had loved once long ago, saves him from his void of despair and, in her effort to console him, reveals two long-held, painful secrets, secrets that inspire within him a dark new purpose for living.

However, it isn’t long before this new lethal life mission of his places him and those he cares for straight within the deadly crosshairs of corrupt Russian agents and unscrupulous corporate moguls and forces him on a desperate and harrowing journey of rescue and revenge, one that takes him from the lush rolling hills of his Southern Pennsylvania farm, down to the mean streets of Baltimore and the steamy bayous of New Orleans, and then back once again to the windswept desert of Iraq where all his troubles first began… and where his most anticipated act of vigilante justice is destined to be executed.

Review new 2021

Kurt Brindley’s novel The Good Kill: A Killian Lebron Novel first introduces a character called the killer.  The killer invades the house of a Mexican cartel boss in Ohio, tapes the naked bad guy to a chair in his basement, and with some extremely cruel torture with a machete, he forces the Mexican to confess his sins of sex and drug trafficking as he videos it. The video goes viral to sex and violence addicts, and to drug and sex traffickers who frequent the dark web.

The novel moves back in time with Killian Lebron — although not yet using his name — awaking from a six week induced coma in a Walter Reed veteran hospital wing in D. C., and it is made clear that the Navy Seal’s life will never return to normal after surviving a blast in Mosul, Iraq where he was injured while trying to rescue kidnapped teenage girls who ISIS turned into sex slaves.

The novel then introduces a myriad of bad guys who are involved in sex trafficking, and introduces Toni Steele, who is kidnapped while looking for her twin sister who used the stage name, Ruby Black, in the strip club that she disappeared from. The sex trafficking underworld is portrayed in graphic detail as tastefully as I can imagine.

When Killian is released from the hospital, RJ Gunther, who has loved him since their preteen years, is introduced. RJ is the only truly wholesome character in the whole novel. Her love for Killian never worked out when they were young for reasons that I won’t disclose here. When she is kidnapped by the bad guys, the story revolves around trying to find and rescue her.

I generally shy away from reading novels about dark subjects, and nothing is darker than sex trafficking. Despite that proclivity of mine, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. I found the first part of the novel a bit confusing as it jumped around to introduce all the major characters that play important roles later. When I read the first seven chapters a second time, they made perfect sense.

I like the author’s voice and writing style. I would love to read a novel of his that is not so dark. That prejudice of mine should be taken into account when considering the three star rating that I give to this novel.

Book Reviewer – Ed Sheehan


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About the Author

Kurt Brindley The Good Kill

A husband and father of three, Kurt Brindley is also a retired sailor who lives in Southern Pennsylvania in a house on top of a windy and rolling hill. He traveled much of the world while serving in the navy and, aye, he’s got some stories to tell…

Kurt served twenty years and four days in the navy and “retired” as a Senior Chief Petty Officer. He has an undergraduate degree in English from the University of Maryland and a graduate degree in Human Relations from the University of Oklahoma.

In 1998, he took a hiatus from his regular duties as a navy telecommunications specialist to attend the U. S. military’s Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute. The institute is little known to most but is internationally renowned to those in the human relations field.

Upon graduation, Kurt was certified as a Navy Equal Opportunity Adviser and assigned the responsibilities of providing diversity management training and equal opportunity consultation and assistance to navy personnel throughout the navy’s Western Pacific area of operations.

Much of this work focused on awareness and outreach seminars in an effort to mitigate the harassment and abuse that resulted from the confusion and resentment surrounding the military’s Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy.

Kurt’s assignment as an EOA was one of the most challenging, and rewarding, assignments of his navy career, and it served as the impetus behind much of his early writing, including his novel THE SEA TRIALS OF AN UNFORTUNATE SAILOR and his short story “Leave.”

The Good Kill

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2 Responses

  1. Emma Mane says:

    I think I probably would have felt the same Ed. Amazing review.

  2. Thanks for your comment.