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A Dangerous Man by J.L. Engel

In his debut novel, A Dangerous Man (Olympia Publishers), author J.L. Engel spotlights the atrocity of human trafficking as victims are avenged by a skilled and murderous vigilante determined to exact justice.

The man nicknamed Ghost is exactly what his name implies: invisible. Some also know him as the “ultimate killer” or “Ares Incarnate.” A CIA splinter-cell operative, he’s on a mission to end one of the largest human trafficking rings on the planet, and he’ll do whatever it takes to free its victims and bring them both the freedom and the justice they deserve.

Ghost must also exact revenge on the man who ruined the only happiness he’d ever experienced and caused the demise of the family he was never meant to have. 

THE PLAYERS

Yuri “The Wolf” Kurikova — the leader of a Russian crime family who’d marketed a billion-dollar global sex-slavery ring — is responsible for tearing Ghost’s family apart. Kurikova employs only Russians and many are elite Spetznaz soldiers, “among the toughest soldiers the world had to offer, at times bordering on the thin line of insanity.” But even their brutality could not protect them from Ghost’s retribution.

FBI Special Agent Connor Stone looks like a boy scout, but he has his own deadly history. Stone was the Ghost’s “domestic liaison for a CIA splinter cell operating in the states.” He knows that Ghost — at 6’5” and 260 pounds — is “a one-man army … as if he were some hybrid machine, the prototype of a mad scientist’s machination marrying the strength and durability of a tank with the speed and maneuverability of a Ferrari.” 

Gulf War veteran and Boston PD Lieutenant Detective Randal McCrary is assigned to assist Stone with the investigation in Boston. His involvement brings him both heartbreak and reinvention.

And the ultimate puppeteer is the clandestine Mr. X, a U.S. operative who plays by his own rules. 

THE PLAYBOOK

Someone slaughters forty elite former Russian Spetznaz soldiers in a warehouse where kidnapped eight-year-old Ana Stewart is being held. The carnage is so violent it’s dubbed “the Boston Massacre” and is the most recent in a string of assassinations across the U.S. Besides Ana, law enforcement finds an underground holding area filled with sex-trafficking victims. 

Ghost has been on his mission of vengeance for three years — since his wife and young daughter were taken — killing over 200 men. “And like the essence of a ghost, he had arrived and vanished in each city he’d strategically targeted without a trace.”

As Ghost leads Stone and McCrary from one Boston sex-trafficking dungeon to another, each bloody site revealing a message for Stone, McCrary realizes there is a deeper connection between the FBI agent and Ghost than stopping Kurikova.

And as Yuri Kurikova’s human-trafficking enterprise collapses, he must also answer to a higher power — Mr. X, who might even have more to lose than Kurikova.

Who will stay alive during this ultimate eye-for-an-eye game of retribution?

THE MISSION

Engel’s narrative takes readers into the very real and heartbreaking crime of human trafficking that plagues our world today. As depicted through the story, trafficking lives under society’s radar and, although concealed, it is very real. Through Ghost, Engel shows the trauma caused by the epidemic of human slavery.

Engel notes that he was “disgusted at the reality of human trafficking, and the lack of justice for its victims.” He calls for people to get involved with organizations battling human trafficking and sex slavery.

This timely tale of retribution will have readers cheering on the vigilante Ghost, despite the carnage. In his case, justice is a dish best served bloody.

Buy this Book!

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A Dangerous Man by J.L. Engel
Publish Date: 6/8/2021
Genre: Crime, Fiction, Thrillers
Author: J.L. Engel
Publisher: Olympia Publishers
ISBN: 9781788308700
K.L. Romo

K. L. Romo writes about life on the fringe: teetering dangerously on the edge is more interesting than standing safely in the middle. She is passionate about women’s issues, loves noisy clocks and fuzzy blankets, but HATES the word normal. She blogs about books at Romo's Reading Room. For more, visit klromo.com, @klromo on Twitter and @k.l.romo on Instagram.

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