Rating: 4.25🌈
Nobody Rides For Free picks up after the events in The Next One Will Kill You, where rookie FBI agent helped close a big investigation, shot a perpetrator, and got shot during the final climactic moments.
Even though he was wearing a vest, he’s still recovering emotionally and physically from the effects of that incident. It takes a call from his mentor, Agent Roly Gutierrez, asking him for assistance in a new case that brings Angus back into active duty.
It starts with a series of overdoses that soon lead to several startling revelations. And soon, Angus is sifting through the data and evidence of multiple cases to find out what is happening and how all the people and cases connect with a growing number of gay men Angus thinks might be in danger.
In detective or police procedural novel (or tv show), you will hear the phrase that investigations are mostly boring, endlessly pouring over pages, numbers, data, and countless other information for evidence to solidify the case they are working on.
Here, as in the first novel, Plakcy does such a excellent job illustrating the hard and often tedious process of compiling the data legally to build the case against the criminal(s). And does it while making it suspenseful and compelling.
And real. Because not every lead pans out. Not every warrant goes as planned. Not everything works as you wanted or hoped.
And not every main character is a golden boy, without fault or failure or the ability to succeed in one area without losing in another. I think that is what makes Angus Green so interesting to me.
I’m not sure I always like him even as I understand him. He has a tendency to play loose with his roommate, be a user there instead of a friend when a case is involved. Even with others, unless it’s his brother (and that’s not been tested), it’s the FBI case loyalty first, then the others are staggered accordingly to their current position in his life. A precarious situation at times, as Lester, his on and off and now on again boyfriend has discovered. Very hard to be involved with them as a couple as it feels very superficial. I get the impression Lester might not last long.
There’s a few weak spots here. Other than the obvious romantic interest. Especially in the Russian community and mob section. The villain and his ex girlfriend needed more exposition at the end of the investigation to make sense. That includes the Dorje episode too.
Still Nobody Rides For Free (An Angus Green Novel Book 2) by Neil S. Plakcy is a strong read with a very complicated main character. I was totally invested in all the investigations and outcomes. So I’m onto the next. Can’t wait.
I’m definitely recommending this! Read the books in the order that they are written.
Angus Green series:
✓ The Next One Will Kill You #1
✓ Nobody Rides For Free #2
â—¦ Survival Is A Dying Art #3
â—¦ Brackish Water #4
Buy Link:
Nobody Rides for Free: An Angus Green Novel
Description:
With less than a year of experience under his belt and only one big case behind him, FBI Special Agent Angus Green has joined the rarefied group of agents who have been wounded in the line of duty. Now, assigned to a desk job while he recovers, Angus wonders if he’s chosen the right career. He’s been following his late father’s dream for a life of adventure and travel—and instead encountered danger, pain and heartbreak. But when he discovers that gay teens are being sexually abused by a pornographer in the same neighborhood where he lives, he has to step up and bring his intelligence, his determination and his unique insights to save these young men. The case takes him from Fort Lauderdale’s seamy underbelly to boisterous beachfront bars where big-fish Russian émigrés launder illegal cash. He’ll befriend a beautiful Russian-American undercover agent and rekindle a romance with a man who makes him feel protected. In the end, he’ll learn the truth of a saying he learned as a boy – there is a price to pay for every decision we make. Nobody rides for free.
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 