The Shepherd
Crime, Mystery, Thriller
Ethan Cross
Shepherd, Book # 1
Story Plant
January 14, 2011
ebook
328
English
June 27, 2018 July 1, 2018
Marcus Williams and Francis Ackerman Jr. both have a talent for hurting people. Marcus, a former New York City homicide detective, uses his abilities to protect others while Ackerman uses his gifts to inflict pain and suffering.
When both men become unwilling pawns in a conspiracy that reaches to the highest levels of our government, Marcus finds himself in a deadly game of cat and mouse trapped between a twisted psychopath and a vigilante with seemingly unlimited resources. Aided by a rogue FBI agent and the vigilante's beautiful daughter - a woman with whom he's quickly falling in love - Marcus must expose the deadly political conspiracy and confront his past while hunting down one of the must cunning and ruthless killers in the world.
About the book
This is the first volume of the series entitled “Shepherd” and is divided in 4 parts. The chapters are short except for 2 or 3 so the book reads quickly.
The only flaw is that I do not like it when the protagonist is involved in some crime and he is innocent.
However, I like the style.
Am I the only one who wants the killer to live? When he fights with Lewis (one of the policemen, not the main character) I hope he lives and kills Lewis instead. I do not know what my problem is, if I have one because I want a “bad guy” to win, but seeing who Lewis is (the rival who belongs to the “good” guys), I do not want him to win…
I liked the twist about 60 pages to the end (more or less) the involvement of “that” person surprised me.
Instead, I wasn’t surprised by the final twist, I felt that something like that was going to happened given the title of the fourth part (or at least the Italian title, I don’t know what the English title is).
I believe the author has expressed the human dilemma we all have. Is it right to kill a ruthless killer without due process? Do we reduce ourselves to their mentality or do we save human lives? If we look at what’s narrated in the films/TV series or books, there is always a final battle and the detective eventually comes out victorious and very often the killer is not captured, but killed in self-defense, so where is that thin line between self-defense and cold decision to take a life? We could write books and essays on this dilemma, people have different thoughts, but what is the right one? Is there a right one or are they both valid?
Very likely I’m going to read the next book because I like books where the protagonist has a nemesis.
