Urban Waite

Former sheriff Patrick Drake is finally getting out of jail, twelve years after he got caught in a drug-dealing scheme. His son Bobby was twenty when he went away and is now a deputy in Patrick's old small-town department. Patrick's father Morgan is living off the land in a rural cabin far outside town and knows more than anyone realizes about his son's past misdeeds. The sequel (companion, perhaps?) to the author's debut [b:The Terror of Living|8666759|The Terror of Living|Urban Waite|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1344264728s/8666759.jpg|13538381] (which I have not read), SOMETIMES THE WOLF opens the day Bobby Drake picks his father up from prison. Bobby doesn't know Patrick's past is following them and about to catch up in a dangerous way.

As crime thrillers go, the setup isn't stunningly new. Bad men believe Patrick still has some of the drug money hidden away, and naturally they want said money, and naturally they'll do anything to get it. What makes this novel interesting is the interplay between three generations of Drake men, how they talk to each other and what they think of each other, who respects whom and who doesn't (the latter should be somewhat obvious). The reason I come back to this genre time and time again is because while the setups are always familiar, the conclusions often are not. An author can start off with a premise like this one and do almost anything with it. What Urban Waite chooses to do with it is the main source of my disappointment.

A secondary source is the writing itself. The sentence fragments in this book might outnumber the complete sentences, and they're often clumsily rendered as dependent phrases (an entire book of "The quick brown fox jumping over the lazy dog"). The point of view isn't very deep, but there are too many paragraphs of character introspection to call it omniscient. For example, when the scene takes place from Bobby's point of view, the reader is frequently told "Drake was angry at his father," "Drake didn't know what to say," "Drake didn't know how he felt about that." Speaking of Bobby Drake, he's referred to in narrative as "Drake" throughout the book (even in his father and grandfather's scenes), another thing that keeps the point of view on the surface.

In addition to the stylistic problems, the characters are more than a little frustrating. The status in this book belongs too much to the villains. Bobby seems to be the protagonist, judging from allotted page time, but he's a passive entity in most of the plot pieces. He's called "smart" more than once, but he spends the entire book being fed information (and he has to be the only sheriff's deputy in history to knock on a door and then turn his back so the bad guys can jump him). His most decisive actions come after the climax and are actually decisions not to act. Perhaps Mr. Waite made Bobby a helpless character on purpose, but this combined with the choice to leave most of the character relationships unresolved makes for a dissatisfying read.

It's a well-paced story with a good balance of description, dialogue, and action. Morgan, Patrick, and Bobby are an interesting trio of action and consequence, of decision and fallout, of loyalty and distrust. There's a quality of understated reality to the book overall that feels authentic, not forced. If I hadn't tripped over so many pointless sentence fragments, and if the main characters had exhibited a bit more competence and determination in their lives overall, this might have been a four-star read for me.… (altro)

Good thriller! Very quick paced and exciting! The plot moves right along! At first I had an uh-oh moment, when I felt like the main character, Ray, was just a copy of Clint Eastwood's character in Unforgiven, even saying things like, "I'm not like that anymore." But that passed quickly, and Ray got to business! His path of revenge and its connection with his cousin make for a rollicking ride through dusty roads and ranch lands of New Mexico. Love the vengeance and the brutality of the actions of the gunmen and the drug cartel. Urban Waite really brought it with this book!… (altro)