San Diego Dead - Mark Nolan

The fourth book in the Jack Wolfe series by Mark Nolan 

Danger is never far away from Jack Wolfe, the marine turned lawyer who resides in California, with his faithful ex-service dog, Cody. He sits on a white sandy beach in Cabo San Lucas enjoying a vacation, but then the water turns cold as murder is washing up on the shore.

A relaxing holiday goes awry when violence erupts involving a criminal cartel on his doorstep, and when murderous intentions involve faithful friends of both the two and four legged kind, Wolfe must reclaim a deadly package to save innocent lives.

Also in jeopardy is his burgeoning relationship with Sarah, an accomplished veterinarian who loves both Jake and Cody, yet cannot decide if she can be with someone who must drop everything at the drop of a hat to go save the world.

As this reader writes this plotline of the fourth Jake Wolfe novel, it may seem far fetched and outlandish, yet if you have ever read a Lee Child/Jack Reacher novel you will know that outlandishness is not too faraway.

The problem with this book is the characterisation and weak dialogue which does not roll of the tongue of the characters as it would if someone like Child was at the helm.

That is perhaps doing a disservice to the action sequences of the book which jump off the page, yet once Wolfe talks as an amalgm of any Matthew McConnaughey character or the machismo of Jordan Belfort, it is just that when Wolfe who is indebted to save the world and very much in love with Sarah, is so easily tempted and could easily commit infidelity with Agent Greene in the closing chapters of the book it leaves a bit of a bad taste in the mouth - the wish fulfilment Bond like scenario is probably the most disbelieving part of the set-up.

The attempts to create a viable alternative to the buddy-cop partnership, one is human, one is man's best friend, but both are war veterans should be commended yet the attempt to write part of Cody's point of view is perhaps expected but not successful.

This reader like the action sequences but found some of the characterisation a bit too on the nose, much like Wolfe's tasting notes for the wine (of which there are three in this book); this is nonetheless good escapist fare which was easy to digest in a few sittings.

My thanks to damppebbles blog tour for the review opportunity in exchange for an honest review.

San Diego Dead is out now and available on Amazon Kindle.