Killing Maine (A Pono Hawkins Thriller) - Softcover

Bond, Mike

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1627040307 ISBN 13: 9781627040303

Publisher: Big City Press, 2015

Synopsis

KIRKUS: "Another stellar ride from Bond; checking out Pono’s first adventure isn’t a prerequisite, but this will make readers want to."Surfer and Special Forces vet Pono Hawkins quits sunny Hawaii for Maine’s brutal winter to help former SF buddy Bucky Franklin beat a murder rap. The same Bucky who once sent Pono to military prison then married his girlfriend Lexie. But in Special Forces you never leave a buddy behind no matter what they’ve done. Especially if they once saved your life.An unknown sniper has shot environmental exec Ronnie Dalt, and the police say it was Bucky. So Pono finds himself hooked up with Bucky’s wife Lexie trying to find Bucky an alibi. And meets an old flame, the fierce and beautiful attorney Erica, and then the dead man’s wife Abigail, who has never met a man she couldn’t devour alive.Unknown killers stalk Pono as he tries to unravel Ronnie’s death. Nothing is certain, no one can be trusted, no place is safe. There’s a million square miles of wildlands out there to hide a man’s body. And with a rap sheet that includes two jail sentences, Pono is the number one target of every cop in the state.Sadly Maine turns out to be as politically corrupt as Hawaii, with huge energy corporations gobbling up the state’s beautiful mountains and purchasing its politicians at bargain prices. Once again Pono finds himself hunted, shot at, betrayed, stalked by knife-wielding assassins, and in love with three women.Second in the Pono Hawkins series after the critically-acclaimed, best-seller SAVING PARADISE, KILLING MAINE is an insider’s view of crooked Maine politics, the state’s magical and fast-disappearing natural beauty, and how a lone commando hunts down those who hunt him, and is based on the author’s own experiences in Maine, the Middle East and elsewhere.KIRKUS Review:In Bond’s latest thriller, Hawaiian surfer Pono Hawkins books a flight to Maine to help a fellow Special Forces vet duck a murder conviction.Pono doesn’t consider Bucky Franklin a friend. Years ago, Bucky left with Pono’s love, Lexie, and provided testimony in one of two cases that sent Pono to jail (although both convictions were overturned). But Bucky saved Pono’s life when they were in Special Forces, and he’s determined to help when Lexie tells him he’s been arrested for killing environmentalist Ronnie Dalt. It doesn’t look good for Bucky. The murder weapon was his, and his alibi is shaky. But Pono knows he’s on the right track when someone tries to shoot him. He starts a dangerous relationship with Dalt’s widow, Abigail, and gradually exposes a string of political unscrupulousness. Bond’s novel, the second to feature Pono, makes its protagonist credible as an amateur sleuth; Pono’s smart enough to enlist hacker pal Mitchell, whose skills draw more viable suspects than Pono can find on his own. And his beloved home is always on his mind as he suffers the Maine winter hoping to wrap everything up before an upcoming surfing festival, the Tahiti Tsunami. The story has an unusual villain, WindPower LLC, whose deafening, monstrous turbines are an incessant presence throughout the story. The political and financial muscle behind WindPower is abundantly clear from the beginning, immediately demonizing the company. The book, however, isn’t short on mysteries. Abigail, for one, inexplicably vanishes, a disappearance that the cops blame on Pono, as well as a couple of murders. Like in Pono’s previous story, the surfer’s fondness for women creates a triad of drama: Abigail; lawyer Erica, a lover from back when Pono was a mere 14; and Lexie (Pono won’t sleep with her while Bucky’s in jail, but it’s obvious that he’s trying his hardest not to). Pono’s relationship with his Pa is the strongest; the most heartfelt moments are Pono rushing back to Hawaii, regardless of cops wanting him to stay in Maine, when Pa’s diagnosed with cancer.Another stellar ride from Bond.

About this title

From the Author

Mike Bond's Other Novels:                                                                                     SAVING PARADISE: When Special Forces veteran and Hawaiian surfer Pono Hawkins finds a beautiful journalist drowned off Waikiki he is quickly caught in a web of murder and political corruption. Trying to find her killers, he soon finds them hunting him, and blamed for her death. A relentless thriller of politics, sex, lies, manhunts and remorseless murder, Saving Paradise is "a rousing crime thriller and so much more." - Book Chase
 
THE LAST SAVANNA: SAS veteran Ian MacAdam leads a commando squad against Somali terrorists who are killing Kenya's last elephants. The chase turns deadly when the poachers kidnap the woman he loves. Based on the author's experience pursuing elephant poachers in Kenya. "Tragic and beautiful, sentimental and ruthless, The Last Savanna is a vast and wonderful book." - NetGalley Reviews
 
HOUSE OF JAGUAR: A tense thriller of CIA operations in Latin America, guerrilla wars, drug flights, military dictatorships, environmental catastrophes and death squad genocides, based on the author's personal experience as a human rights and war correspondent there during the worst years of US-backed military governments. "Tough and tense thriller." - Manchester Evening News (UK)
 
HOLY WAR: Based on the author's own experiences in Syria, Lebanon and the Sinai, Holy War is the story of implacable hatreds and frantic love affairs, of explosions, betrayals, snipers and ambushes. An American spy, a French commando, a Hezbollah terrorist and a Palestinian woman guerrilla all cross paths on the deadly streets and fierce deserts of the Middle East. "A gripping tale of passion, hostage-taking and war." - Evening News (UK)
 

TIBETAN CROSS: An American Himalayan climber stumbles on a shipment of nuclear weapons headed into Tibet. Pursued by spy agencies and other killers across Asia, Europe and the United States, he is captured then rescued by a beautiful young woman with whom he forms a deadly liaison. They escape, are captured and escape again, death always at their heels. "Grips the reader from the opening chapter and never lets go." − Miami Herald

About the Author

Called "master of the existential thriller" by BBC, "one of America's best thriller writers" by Culture Buzz, Mike Bond is a best-selling novelist, ecologist, and war and human rights journalist. He has helped create wilderness areas and wild and scenic rivers across the US, and has worked to protect endangered species worldwide.
As a journalist, he has covered death squads, guerrilla wars and military dictatorships in Latin America and Africa and Islamic terrorism in the Middle East, Asia and Europe. His critically acclaimed novels take the reader into intense experiences in the world's most perilous places, into deep and dangerous love affairs, poltical and corporate conspiracies and wars and revolutions, making "readers sweat with [their] relentless pace." (Kirkus Reviews) and drawing them "into a land and a time I had not known but left me with my senses reeling." (NetGalley Reviews)

About this edition

• Publisher: Big City Press
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1627040307
• ISBN 13: 9781627040303
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 386