Review of “Red Deuce” by Thomas Roehlk

Score: 93/100 (9.3 out of 10)

Red Deuce is a captivating crime-thriller by Thomas Roehlk, exploring issues like the corporate law, corruption, greed, espionage, intelligence, national security, and the lasting power and influence of the military-industrial complex!

Red Deuce is, at its core, akin to a private investigator/detective mystery following two twin sisters—the titular “red deuce” (duo)—as they race to get to the bottom of several suspicious events including the discovery of two bodies in a shallow graves, believed to be that of whistleblowers. One of these sisters, Mandy Doucette, is a lawyer for LaSalle Enterprises, which is now mired in controversy upon the discovery that its own chief of security was tied to criminal activity. The other sister, Dr. Regina Doucette (often just called “Reggie”) is a forensics nerd obsessed with bugs akin to someone like Gil Grissom from CSI. They make a very keen and capable dynamic duo!

They are helped by Rick Crawford, Mandy's trusted accomplice at the firm. Rick has about as much screen-time as Reggie, if not more, making him effectively the tritagonist of the novel.

The three make a great team and are going to need to pull all their resources to get to the bottom of this nation-shaking mystery involving possible espionage (spies), corporate corruption, and the unscrupulous dealings of defense contractors, Allzient—a company linked to mass-bribery schemes—and the suspicious Spruance Corporation which seems interested in buying out Allzient along with its deep, dark secrets, the least of which are AI and nuclear fusion technologies.

Mandy is someone who won't take no for an answer and who would rather ask for forgiveness than ask for permission. If you've ever been frustrated with complacent detectives, law officers, and DAs who dismiss victims of crime (or alleged crime) and fail to follow up on leads, then you have to stand up and cheer for Mandy.

Mandy goes above and beyond to seek truth, to do what is right, and to find justice for victims. While it seems like everyone else is quick to write off the murder victims as being the targets of a violent gang or of a hit sent to silence them, Mandy is keen enough to ask the question: Why would you need to silence whistleblowers after they've already blown the whistle? What more could they have been capable of sharing? How much deeper does this conspiracy go?

Because of this, Mandy and Reggie become the targets of spies sent and recruited by a foreign government, indoctrinated from a young age to hate the United States.

Mandy is attacked numerous times in different ways, and when the fingerprints from the attacks are traced back, a shocking realization is made!

Who is Emily Jenkins? Who is Sherman Haskins? What about Phillip Ray and Harold Menzies? What about Patrick Carney, who it turns out is the descendant of the founder of LeSalle?

This book's mystery winds and weaves, leaving the reader on an exciting wild goose chase with a lot of red-herrings, hints, and clues.

The final act of the book was also very exciting! It kinda reminded us of a game of Battleship in which the two sides are trying to guess what the other will do. The one complaint we have with that is how bullet-proof kevlar was used as a plot device. How in the blue heck are you supposed to assume that an assassin will 100% shoot you in a very specific part of your upper torso? What if they shoot you in the head, the large part of the leg, the gut, the side of the rib, or the crotch? What happens if the wind blows and the bullet gets you right up and under your vest? What happens to your genius plan then? That's one of the things that bothered us.

Also, to be perfectly honest, the whole plot of this book was extremely complicated and convoluted, perhaps more than it needed to be.

At the same time, the main plot is relatively easy to follow, and the bad guys are ultimately pretty obvious.

The other thing we appreciated was how the author, a real-life marathon runner and Iron Man triathlete, incorporated his experiences into the book in a way that made sense for both the characters and the plot.

Along with the marathon-talk, we also appreciated the small-talk about the sports teams and rivalries. It really gives you a sense that the characters are really people of Chicago, living life there, rather than generic characters in the middle of nowhere-ville.

This book reminded us a lot of Pedaling West by E.A. Coe, Deadly Game by Michael Caine, and The Lethal Elixir by Dennis Ross. That's a pretty strange yet interesting set of comparisons!

Check it out on Amazon!