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In this intriguing tale, the first few chapters throw the reader off-balance because they initially seem to belong in different books. What is immediately apparent from this content is that Thomas' characters are in life-threatening situations much of the time. As readers become acclimated to the author's literary device, they realize that this is Thomas' strategy to enable the reader to enter Mack's world, in which several plots, people, and problems comprise the life and work of a character that might have come from the mind of Raymond Chandler, Mickey Spillane, Dashiell Hammett, and others who rely on grit and guns more than more esoteric ways of detection. Mack has been betrayed in multiple ways. Will he return to an organization that apparently set him up to be a fall guy, claiming him guilty when he was not, and of being a person he was not?
Raymond Mackey's world is a complex patchwork of violence, espionage, crime (both organized and disorganized), contracts, attractions, uncertainties, and betrayals. Not for the squeamish, this blood-and-bullets story has multiple twists leading to a surprise ending. There are aspects of the narrative reminiscent of The Sting. Mack demonstrates his will and ability to survive, and the episodes show his ability to negotiate contracts with people whose motives are either ambiguous, hostile, or formerly hostile, and who are themselves trying to survive. Readers of violent crime fiction will delight in Owen's book, which is the last in a trilogy, and should be prepared for multiple challenges to their perceptions and emotions.