3 out of 4 stars
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The Good Fight is the first book in The Last Enemy series by Dan E. Hendrickson. It is, at its heart, an action-crime novel. It includes not only corruption, pirates, and battles in international waters, but also the importance of family.
Danielle’s father, Commander Jacob Edwards, is known as the Hero of Cozumel due to his actions at sea years ago in response to a pirate attack on a cruise ship. Having grown up worshipping her father, Danielle is devastated when tragedy strikes. Struggling to cope, she takes solace in her dance company, taking time away from the family automotive business where there are too many memories.
However, these memories refuse to be left behind as she finds herself in the middle of an elaborate plot to destroy everything she holds dear. Will she be able to help save her family or will she lose everything?
Written in third person, the story mainly follows Danielle with some sections set in the past focused on Jacob. Danielle comes across as a determined young woman with a strong sense of honour and family. She’s a likeable character, not only because of her work with the children in her dance company but because she doesn’t fall into the category of a damsel in distress. There are many secondary characters and they are all portrayed realistically. One which I found especially well written was the character of Boris. Determined and cruel, he lets nothing come between him and his plans, not even family. This provides a nice contrast to Danielle’s character.
Set mainly in Texas and around the sea, there are a lot of nautical and naval references included in the writing. However, for someone like me who has no knowledge of the technical jargon associated with this, I found that, luckily, it never overwhelmed the story.
Several serious topics are brought up here such as murder, rape, physical and sexual abuse. Though these are difficult subjects, they were never depicted in a graphic or unnecessary manner which I appreciated as a reader.
The writing style was fast-paced and gripping right from the start and I found it difficult to put the book down. While the majority of the storyline was tied up by the end, there was a huge cliffhanger in the last chapter. This will lead in well to the next book in the series.
Unfortunately, there were many simple errors in the editing such as unnecessary hyphens and missing speech marks. These would easily be picked up with another edit. Due to this, I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars. I enjoyed the story a lot more than I anticipated, and the plot was both solid and believable. I recommend this book to any readers who enjoy thriller or action based fiction, especially those with a fondness towards sea-based settings. I look forward to the next in the series.
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The Good Fight
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