Death Threat

by Michael Brandman

Overview

Buddy Steel's maverick behavior as a police officer has won his commander's respect and a promotion to LAPD homicide detective. Almost immediately, he is asked to join a task force working to bust a major meth shipment to LA from Mexico. One of the two undercover agents on the case has gotten himself killed by the Mexican cartel but not before spilling that a female agent is deeply enmeshed within their organization. The agent in question—Kara Machado—barely learns that her true identity may soon be exposed to the cartel when she is whisked abruptly to their family compound in Mexico, cut off from any communication with the outside world.

But Buddy has personal history with Kara, and he's determined to bring her home safely. Enlisting the aid of three friends from his military days and working through back channels, Buddy launches an off-the-books foreign invasion to find not only Kara but also the storage location of the drugs bound for LA. With the odds and time against them, Buddy and his team know it will take a miracle to accomplish either objective—and another to get them all out alive.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781728277363
Publisher:	Sourcebooks
Publication date:	04/02/2024
Series:	Buddy Steel Thrillers , #5
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	249
Sales rank:	64,803
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Michael Brandman is the author of three Jesse Stone novels, each based on characters created by Robert B. Parker, all on the New York Times Best Sellers list.

With his longtime partner, Tom Selleck, he produced and co-wrote nine Jesse Stone movies and three Westerns.

His and Emanuel Azenberg's production of Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead won the Venice Film Festival's Golden Lion Award for Best Picture.

He has produced more than forty motion pictures including films written by Arthur Miller, Stephen Sondheim, Neil Simon, David Mamet, Horton Foote, Wendy Wasserstein; David Hare, and Athol Fugard.

He is the father of two sons and lives in Los Angeles with his wife, the actress Joanna Miles.

Editorial Reviews

2023-07-13
The death of his old LAPD mentor sparks Buddy Steel’s memory of a 10-year-old case.

Itching to get promoted from officer to detective in the Hollywood Division in 2012, Buddy sees a shortcut to his dream when Deputy Commander Jeremy Logan asks him to take a leading role in an operation targeting Los Pacos, a drug cartel preparing to offer interested clients a super-high grade of meth. But the price is equally high. Logan wants Buddy to masquerade as a Los Pacos client to replace Officer Nicholas Morgan, another cop who posed as a well-heeled buyer before he was executed. And the reason Logan’s chosen such an inexperienced officer as Buddy for the job is that he has a history with Officer Kara Machado, who’s already under the covers with Francisco Reyes, Pacos head of operations and heir apparent to the whole megillah. After hemming and hawing for less than a minute, Buddy agrees, but the nature of his job changes the instant he spots Kara with Francisco and she mouths, “Help me.” Now Buddy sees his job not as infiltrating Los Pacos but as exfiltrating the ex-lover who wouldn’t commit to him. Francisco, who’s not so distracted by the anti-police riots roiling the city that he hasn’t sussed out that his bedmate isn’t to be trusted, whisks her off to Mexico; Buddy enlists three old Marine buddies to make sure his improbable off-the-books rescue comes off. After a slow start that seems designed to remind fans what a tough maverick Buddy is, there’s nothing to slow them down as the tale hurtles toward its eminently predictable climax.

A speedy read that’s even more one-dimensional than Buddy’s first four adventures, which is saying a lot.

Kirkus Reviews