Review of ‘The Good Soldier’

Posted on July 13, 2016 Updated on July 9, 2016

The Good Soldier book bundle by L.T. Ryan contains the first two books in this series about Jack Noble, a Marine who just wants to complete his hitch and get on with his life.

In Noble Beginnings, Jack and his partner, Bear, are assigned to provide security for CIA teams working against terrorists in Afghanistan. When Jack stops one of the agents from abusing a family, he and Bear find themselves in the crosshairs of an enigmatic group hell bent on their destruction. From the heat of Afghanistan to the murky underworld of Washington politics, Jack and Bear try to stay one step ahead of their potential assassins while getting to the bottom of a byzantine conspiracy that could change the course of American politics.

The second book in the series, A Deadly Distance, finds Jack out of the Marine Corps and working as a contract assassin himself. He and his new partner, Jack Skinner, think they’re stalking a suspect who is part of a ring smuggling guns to terrorists. What they find instead shocks them to the root of their souls. Instead of smuggling guns into the country, they’re smuggling children out; part of a scheme by a mad politician who is angling for higher office through a scheme that is as dastardly as it is shocking.

Ryan takes the reader on a ride through a murky world that is hard for the average person to imagine, but that could be true. Dialogue is crisp, gritty, and from the gut, and action scenes will get your juices flowing. Some readers will find the no-holds-barred style of these books disturbing, but stick with it and you’ll be rewarded with a read that will stay with you long after you turn the last page.

Jack Noble is, as his name implies, a man of character; willing and able to do nasty things to nasty people, but always with the little people and their safety in mind. Action junkies will get their fill—that’s a promise.

I give both books five stars.