Book Review: 'A Life Interrupted' by Kristi Loucks

 

Jared Belaforte is a member of the Greater Wilmington First Response Team -- a task force assembled by the Governor of North Carolina to track down a powerful Russian drug trafficker and white-slaver named Sergei Dolenov who most likely was to blame for Jared's police-officer father's murder.

Jared's half-brother, Dylan, his father's old partner, Alex, and Alex's cousin are also members of the team -- along with the love of Jared's life, a criminal profiler named Shay McElroy.

On the eve of the day that Shay was to move in with Jared to set up housekeeping together, Jared is kidnapped by the evil Dolenov who is out to send a message to the Governor -- and anyone else who would interfere in his monopoly of "drugs and dolls". Dolenov also wants to find out what "Operation Solo Runes" -- a code Jared recognizes from hearing his father mention it -- is.

So, for the ensuing 2 years, Dolenov keeps Jared prisoner in an 8 x 8 cell where he is subjected to nearly daily torture. Jared reveals nothing. Eventually, one of his captors shows Jared a photograph of Shay holding a little girl in her arms and he is told that the girl is his daughter who was born nearly 9 months after he was kidnapped. A hint implying Dolenov plans to use Shay and his daughter as ransom to make him talk fills Jared with terror and strengthens his resolve to escape so that he can return home and protect his family.

He puts a meticulous plan into motion that will slowly lull his captors into believing he is a broken man who has lost the will to escape and he then waits for the right moment to do so. Powered by sheer will, Jared succeeds in eluding Dolenov and returns home to joyfully reunite with his family but the man who has endured such horror for two full years is, in many ways, not the man who was kidnapped from his home 2 years before. His body and mind are scarred with the brutality of Dolenov and his men.

Jared also knows that Dolenov isn't the kind of man who will simply shrug and walk away... He knows that Dolenov will double and triple his efforts to recapture him and, now, his little family is also in extreme danger -- along with everyone else on the task force.

The plot that ensues is filled with Jared's desperate defense of his loved ones and himself and his consuming need to discover what Dolenov's obsession is with "Operation Solo Runes".

"A Life Interrupted" is more than just an action thriller, it is a poignant story of a family's undying love for one another and their determination to hold together through unbelievably difficult times.

It is available in Kindle format as well as paperback. Order info: http://www.amazon.com/A-Life-Interrupted-ebook/dp/B008KYRP1A .