Hellbound

by Chester D. Campbell

When a busload of seniors from a suburban Nashville church head down the Natchez Trace on a carefree journey to The Big Easy, they are unaware that a Mafia hit squad is playing a deadly game of tag with them. All except one passenger. The man they know as Bryce Reynolds is really Pat Pagano, a successful Las Vegas stockbroker who was lured into handling investments for a New York crime family. After his two grown sons are killed in an attack by a rival gang and his wife succumbs to cancer, Pagano decimates the mob with his testimony in federal court. He disappears, then resurfaces in Nashville as Reynolds, a retired businessman from Oklahoma. But after years of searching, an old Mafia capo tracks Pagano to the church bus en route to New Orleans.

Genres: Thriller

232 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2015

About the author

Chester D. Campbell was born in Nashville, TN in 1925, smack in the midst of the "Roaring Twenties." Though too young for such at the time, he had visions of roaring "off into the wild blue yonder." After more than a year and a half of non-roaring during World War II, he left the service as an Aviation Cadet and studied journalism. His first taste of mysteries came early in his newspaper career when he read two novels by Horace McCoy. Over the next 42 years, he spun words as a reporter, freelance journalist, political speechwriter, advertising copywriter, magazine editor, and public relations pro. He kept his dream of creating mysteries alive and took up novel writing on retirement. He has currently published five Greg McKenzie Mysteries and two books featuring PI Sid Chance. He has added three Post Cold War thrillers and a standalone suspense story . The Greg McKenzie character had his origins in Campbell's Air Force experience. After serving as an intelligence officer in the Korean War, he remained in the Air National Guard, retiring as a lieutenant colonel. He and his wife, Sarah, live in Nashville, TN.

Reviews

[Randy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bryce Reynolds was the name he was known. Not his original, or even the most recent, he was a man in the witness protection program. An investment counselor, he learned years back he was working for the Mafia unknowingly. It had gotten his sons killed by a rival gang and left his wife despondent. He'd testified, gone into witness protection with his wife, who'd later passed because of cancer.

Alone now, he was about to embark on a bus trip with a church group when he finds an old enemy on his heels. Boots Minelli. Fortunately, Bryce found him just after he'd suffered a heart attack. Boots knew the name he was using, but no one else.

Now the bus is being stalked by Mafia men as they try to figure which one is their target. Headed for New Orleans, a hurricane is also bearing down. Bryce, an old WWII veteran is plotting what to do.

It makes for a thrilling read as the author keeps us flying through this tale set in 19999.

recommended.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will never be an old man. To me, old age is always 15 years older than I am. - Francis Bacon

Bryce Reynolds wasn't always a retired senior citizen heading out on a tour bus going from Nashville down to New Orleans. He used to be Pat Pagano, a Las Vegas stockbroker working unknowingly for the Mafia. After tragedies hit his immediate family, he ends up testifying against the Mafia crime boss he worked for and goes into the Witness Protection program - briefly. He then disappears on his own from that program and tries to rebuild his life.

He gets talked into going on the New Orleans tour with a busload of senior citizens from the Lovely Lane United Methodist Church, not knowing that the Mafia has tracked him down and is looking for revenge.

Suspense, humor, romance and some thrills and chills are tossed together in this solid offering from author Campbell. Campbell has written some series books previously but this is a standalone tale (I'm glad about this as I tend to prefer standalone books).

The story read pretty convincingly and the author actually wrote in his introduction that he based the story on a trip that he and his wife had actually taken.

So, if you want to read a fast paced thriller about the Mafia or a tour bus trip or senior citizens that might be older but aren't done with living, try HELLBOUND.

NOTE: I received this book from the author in exchange for my honest review.

[Judy Porter · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thriller on a sweet side. The friendships that can happen instantly. The belief and faith that allows justice to happen

From start to finish an excellent book
Recommend from teen up

[David Dalton · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very boring. Almost no action. Slow read. Hellbound? Snooze bound more like it!

[Kevintipple · Rating 4 out of 5]

The man known to others as Bryce Scott isn’t thrilled about taking the “Lovely Lane Sliver Shadows” bus trip to New Orleans. The possibility of a hurricane that is currently in the West Indies arriving at New Orleans isn’t what concerns him. Not only is he doing to be forced to spend time with other people from a local area church and talk to them, he is going to be forced into dealing with the very real possibility his cover has been blown.

While it is October 1999 and years since he testified, the mob never forgets. The mob in this case is the Vicario crime family. Their capo, Boots Minelli, is in town. The only reason Bryce Scott has a chance to do anything is Boots Minelli has had a very public heart attack and is incapacitated. What he told the others is secondary to the very real major question Bryce faces---what does he do now to stay alive?

As a hurricane gains strength and leads towards New Orleans, Bryce Scott takes the bus trip and makes plans to deal with ending the chase once for all. It has been a long time since he faced the Germans in World War II, but he isn’t going down without a fight. How to do it without involving innocent passengers is just one of a growing list of problems he faces as the miles pass.

This is an interesting mystery thriller style read that contains a few surprises. While it has less humor in it than the Greg McKenzie Mysteries do, there are the occasional small bits of humor. All and all, Hellbound by Chester Campbell is a good read that keeps the reader turning the pages to see how Bryce will deal with the killers after him as well as some of his fellow bus passengers. Some of them just might be as bad as the killers.


Hellbound
Chester Campbell
http://www.chestercampbell.com
Night Shadows Press
http://nightshadowspress.net/
February 2015
ISBN# 978-0986162206
Print (e-book also available)
232 Pages
$15.00


E-book version supplied by the author in exchange for my objective review.


Kevin R. Tipple ©2015

[Linda Thorne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't think I had time to read this, but once I started, I had to force myself to put it down when I had other things that had to be done. I lived on the Mississippi Gulf Coast for eight years and I worked at a job where I traveled to New Orleans often and Natchez on occasion. The protagonist takes a tour from Nashville where I now live. This tour stops in beautiful Natchez and ends up in New Orleans where all kinds of excitement goes on. Good job Chester Campbell. I see you used Beth (Jaden) Terrell to edit this book.

[Military Writers Society of America (MWSA)]

MWSA Review

Hellbound, is a thrilling and well woven story, intricate in its blending of mafia bad guys and everyday elderly people on a church bus tour.

Vignettes of the lives of individuals on the bus, both known and hidden, are brought to us mixed in with the unknown to the passenger’s drama, played out slowly over the course of the tour. Campbell, keeps us on the edge of our seats as the relentless pursuit by the mafia of the central character Bryce Reynolds (Pat Pagano) reaches a conclusion.

The ending will surprise the reader. A great story, that I can see as a made for TV movie that will hold an audience’s attention..

Reviewed by: jim greenwald (2015)