The Rundown
Retired Delta Force Major John Powers is on a surveillance assignment in Prague at the time he receives a frantic call from Casey McBride, a retired Air Force Captain. Casey utters that she killed two of three men who broke into her home. She’s convinced that the intruders were looking for Ian, Casey’s five-year-old son, who recently underwent regression therapy. In the hope of discovering the cause of Ian’s aqua phobia (fear of water), Casey is clearly shocked by Ian’s hypnotic response: describing himself as one of three U.S. senators who murdered six years ago.
Recognizing that Casey’s and Ian’s lives are at stake, John immediately sets up a team and preparations for mom and son to be taken to a safe house. It is at this secure location that John not only confirms Ian’s regression therapy but also confesses to being the hit man who was given orders by another U.S. senator to kill the very person Ian identifies as his passed life in his therapy session. Amid the best-laid plans, shots ring out, one man is severely injured, and Ian is swept away without a trace.
Soon afterward John receives a phone call from an ominous messenger who frankly states: “Very simple, it’s you we want. Nothing more, nothing less.” With only forty-eight hours to come up with a plan to save Ian, John determines to find out who gave the termination order six years ago. But things get out of hand, especially when John learns of his stolen identity. What remains is whether or not John and Ian can make it out alive in the process.
Parr’s newest read keeps his audiences edgy from beginning to end. The second novel in the John Powers series, Parr’s distinctive first-person narrative opens with a bewildering situation before it turns dark. Parr grabs the attention of readers from the get-go with his inclusion of a not-so-ordinary five-year-old whose response to regression therapy raises a voice—a U.S. senator, in fact—from the past. The plot thickens with John’s calamitous connection with the deceased senator. Amid a continual stream of dialogue and espionage—all sprinkled with gory scenes—Parr lightens the load of his political thriller with John’s occasional dramatic monologue and snarky commentaries, as well as interesting political and historical information.
The Recommendation
This updated edition to the John Powers series is nothing less than an edgy read. Replete with unexpected twists and turns and a hint of romance, The Dead Have Secrets provides audiences with a top-notch political thriller—one that has definite Silver Screen potential.
