Twisted Key

Terry Rankin #3

by Gary Showalter

Terry Rankin has a new client; Fatima al Natsche, a Muslim woman living under a sentence of death for her work on behalf of women suffering under Islamic law. Terry’s not a religious kind of guy – he’ll protect just about anyone who can pay the freight. In fact, he admires Ms. Al Natsche and the sacrifices she’s made to get her message out.But then her daughter flies over from Norway and gets snatched off the street in front of her mother’s home, and all of the masks come off and all of the dirty little secrets come out to play in the Florida sun.

Genres: Mystery

296 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 27, 2011

About the author

Gary Showalter was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. He lived in Aruba, Florida and the Panama Canal Zone before joining the U.S. Army during the 1960s. Mr. Showalter has picked cotton in East Texas, baled hay in Ardmore Oklahoma, sold light bulbs in Los Angeles, California, and built cattle pens in Fallon, Nevada (during a blizzard, of course). After settling in Atlanta, Georgia, Mr. Showalter worked as a professional gardener before turning his hand to furniture making.
In 1981, he moved to Israel, married, and raised four children while working as a furniture maker, silversmith, goldsmith, and ornamental wood turner. He served in the Israel Defense Forces Reserves for sixteen years, and when not on active duty he worked in government and private security. He has also served in senior management positions in two software development companies in Israel.
Mr. Showalter has published articles dealing with international terror and the Israel-Arab conflict in the Jerusalem Post, Israel national News and several political science web sites.
Mr. Showalter returned to the United States in the fall of 2003. He published his first novel, “The Big Bend”, in the fall of 2008, his second novel, “Hog Valley”, in 2009 and his third novel, “Twisted Key”, in 2011.
Mr. Showalter resides in Deland, Florida, where he has just completed his fourth novel, “Lonesome Cove”.

Reviews

[Maureen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Liked this series

[William Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gary Showalter writes an easy going Florida mystery story. If you are a fan of Carl Hiaasen, James W. Hall, or are old enough to have enjoyed John D. MacDonald and followed Travis McGhee, you’ll like Gary’s writing, Terry Rankin, and Twisted Key, too. What they have in common is an emphasis on the place, a strong tie to boats and water, the marsh and coastal cities of Florida, marinas, the wildlife, and fishing. The emphasis is usually on character as opposed to pounding action. The hero is usually a private eye, or a detective who has moved down to Florida to start a second career away from the crime and violence of one of the big east coast cities. In this case, it is Terry Rankin, an ex-MP, who operates a private protection service – high-skilled bodyguards, not shopping center rent-a-cops. His live-in girlfriend, Cathy Diamond, is a Detective Sergeant in the Orlando Police Department.

Trouble usually starts in this type of story when an outsider intrudes on the on their very laid back life style. In Terry’s case, that is usually a client with a problem that warrants hiring bodyguards. In this story it is Fatima al Natsche, a domineering Arab woman escaping from a tyrant of a husband, whose daughter is suddenly kidnapped from under Terry’s guy’ noses. Push comes to shove as he runs afoul of Hezbollah, hired killers, the police departments of 4 or five cities, the FBI, and the State Department. Naturally, no one is whom they appear, and we end up on a hunt for a missing Spanish treasure ship from their ill-fated Gold Fleet sunk in a hurricane in 1715, and the long-lost sword of Arab General Saladin who beat back the Crusaders. All in all, it is a story full of twists and turns.

Twisted Key is the second in The Big Bend series of mystery stories with Terry Rankin as the continuing hero. They don’t need to be read in sequence. The fourth novel in the series, Lonesome Cove will be released in September. With Robert Parker and some of my other favorites now gone, we can always use more of those. Like Parker, Gary Showalter writes the entire story in first person present tense. I used the same narrating style in my last suspense novel, The Undertaker, and know firsthand the unique challenges it creates for an author. While it lends immediacy and can help draw the reader into the characters and story, the reader only sees, hears, and knows what the central character sees, hears, and knows at a point in time. In this case, it is very well done and I intend to read more of his stories.

Bill Brown is the author of six suspense novels, including The Undertaker and his recently released Amongst My Enemies, both now available in e-book.

[Carly Kirk · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars

Mr. Showalter has an amazing imagination and a definite gift for writing. He obviously loves Florida and incorporates its history and unique geography seamlessly into the story. Only one thing bothered me and it's truly a stupid thing.... The amount of attention paid to Rankin's briefcase - I seriously thought something huge was going to be revealed about it considering how often it was mentioned, like it had been bugged or had a tracking device in it or both! But nope just a lot of detail about it...

[gordon gesner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Trilogy of the Terry Rankin. Series

Trilogy of the Terry Rankin. Series


I found these
Books to be very well written and would highly recommend them. I read the series in a little over a week.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

See my review on Amazon if you're interested.