Title:	Friendly Fire
	Author:	John Gilstrap
	Published:	2016, Pinnacle
	No. of Pages:	512
	Cover Price:	$9.99 Paperback, $7.99 Kindle

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While working in a coffee shop, Ethan Falk, a 22 year old barista, encounters a customer he recognizes as the man who kidnapped and abused him when he was eleven years old. Ethan loses all touch with reality, grabs a knife from the shop, and chases after the man. There is a struggle, but Ethan manages to stab him through the eye, killing him. There are dozens of witnesses, and Ethan is arrested. Pam Hastings is the local police officer called to the scene, and Ethan tells her his story. Hastings believes Ethan, but upon checking it out, finds there is no record of the kidnapping and no record of a rescue by someone Ethan calls Scorpion. There is, however a bit of information on an unsolved triple murder, which Pam checks out.

Jonathan Graves and his team become involved with the Ethan Falk case while rescuing the daughter of a high-ranking politician; they prevent another kidnapping by a terrorist group made up of Americans who are being paid by a sheik to cause havoc in small-town America, and specifically in Braddock County, Virginia. As the story unfolds, the suspense builds, and as several dangerous and violent scenarios are dealt with, readers will be unable to put the book down.

Gilstrap is an excellent storyteller, and is able to make unlikely bouts of violence and terrorism (hopefully unlikely, that is), very believable. The writing style is straightforward and easy to understand. The story flows and the while there is plenty of violence, it is not graphic.

Jonathan Graves is a great character, and readers will also like his partners, Venice Alexander and Brian Van de Muelebroecke, who is known as Boxers. They make up a company that operates under the radar, doing jobs that are actually illegal, but necessary, for the government alphabet agencies. These heroes, while able to do almost miraculous feats, have a human side that will keep readers believing they are real.

It is rare to find a novel that grabs you at the first chapter and keeps you on the edge until the final pages; Friendly Fire does just that, and thriller aficionados will find themselves going back and reading everything John Gilstrap has written. Friendly Fire is a fascinating novel and is highly recommended.

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this novel.

This book may be purchased at Amazon:
Friendly Fire (A Jonathan Grave Thriller)