Planet Dismolle is supposed to be a peaceful haven. So what's with all the gunfire?A criminal gang has moved into Chirless, Dismolle's second major city. Elderly residents are fed up with the loud music, noisy cars and late night parties, not to mention hold-ups, muggings and the occasional gunfight.Chirless has no Peace Force, so Harriet Walsh has to support them as best she can. That puts her up against a gang of hardened criminals with only her training pistol and a few old allies to lend a hand.And these allies aren't just old, they're positively ancient!Besieged by ruthless, well-armed enemies, can Harriet and her motley gang of retirees hold on until help arrives, or is it curtains for the Peace Force?
Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock, Harriet Walsh and Hal Junior (MG) series. He divides his time between writing fiction and computer software, with the occasional bike ride thrown in for a laugh.
Third entry in Simon Haynes's Harriet Walsh Peace Force books, which sees Peace Force trainee Harriet and her 'sister' Alice off to the nearby city of Chirless, the planet Dismolle's second major city, and in which a major criminal gang has moved back into to offer 'protection'.
Devolving, essentially, into one long drawn out siege, this novel is what I would term a light read - it's perfectly competent (probably miles better than anything I could produce), moves along at a reasonable rate, throws one or two twists in but is also, ultimately, forgettable.
NB that's not to say that I didn't enjoy my time with it - I did - just that I'm not sure if it is a novel I would want to re-read at a later date.
The Harriet Walsh series just gets better and better with this third installment - Sierra Bravo. The characters are well established now and it fells like the author is more comfortable to play with them. By far the most action-packed of the series so far, Sierra Bravo takes our team to a neighbouring city to face off against a gang of criminals.
Surprisingly, Bernie (the 'straight man' of the series) takes a much smaller role in this romp. But when you realise that she could have ended the conflict in under a chapter, I guess it's understandable, and her relative omission is explained well.
All-in-all, Sierra Bravo is a great third book in the ever-expanding Harriet Walsh universe.