Fields of Fire by Ryan Steck
Matthew Redd is a Marine through and through. He is a special ops soldier preparing for a mission with his team. The go time has been pushed back again so the team commander gives them all 36 hours liberty.
That’s when things go wrong for Redd in Ryan Steck’s debut, Fields of Fire. With a few hours of liberty left he is out for a ride when he spots a woman trying to change a tire. Raised in the cowboy way, he stops to help. The pretty redhead insists on thanking him with a beer and after some hesitation he accepts – a coke not a beer.
The next day he comes to with a splitting headache and no memory of what happened after he drank the coke. Before he can get himself together, MP’s burst through the door and arrest him for treason. The mission was a go and a trap. His whole team died. He knows he must have been drugged. Did he give away operational details and is responsible for his teammates deaths?
After a week in a cell, Redd is given an option – he can go to trial on a number of charges or he can accept an OTH, other than honorable discharge. It mean the end of his military career but with no way to prove if he is innocent Redd accepts.
After being released, he realizes he missed a call from J.B. Jim Bob Thompson is Matthew’s adopted father and is the one person he doesn’t want to disappoint. When he was eleven years old his mother died from an overdose. His biological father (who didn’t know he had fathered a child) came into his life briefly to take Matthew to J.B.
Living on J.B.’s Montana ranch was hard work and with J.B.’s guidance Matt developed a strong work ethic and a love of the land. But after high school, he followed in J.B.’s footsteps and joined the Marines. Now when he returns the call, he will have to tell J.B.what happened.
But J.B. doesn’t answer and the static filled message he left – Matty … trouble’s come knocking … might need your help – has Matt worried. He doesn’t even bother to pack, just jumps in his truck and heads to Montana.
After a long night, he reaches home to find J.B. isn’t there. He is dead. The official version is he broke his neck when his horse threw him. Matt is not buying it but the body has already been cremated.
J.B. left everything to Matt but things had been hard the last few years and he left behind a lot of debt. The most serious is unpaid taxes. Matt doesn’t have the money to pay it all but if he can get the ranch back in shape maybe he can earn enough to keep it off the auction block.
The area and the town of Wellington have changed since Matt left and a lot of the properties have been bought by Wyatt Gage. The son a billionaire, Wyatt seems intent on adding to his considerable land holdings. He wanted J.B.’s land but J.B. refused to sell now he is determined to get it from Matt.
Matt’s refusal to sell starts a chain of events that threaten the ranch and Matt himself. When he discovers the trouble that came knocking, he has to wonder was the death of his teammates tied to what is happening in Montana.
Matt Redd reminds me a lot of Lee Child’s character Jack Reacher, big, strong fighters that think. But where Reacher is a loner, Matt is looking for home and belonging. This novel is labeled as inspirational fiction but it is not overtly religious in tone. The fighting is violent, the body county runs pretty high and the action is intense.
This is the first book in what is now a 4 book series. If you are a Jack Reacher fan, you might give this series a try. Read-alike authors include Lynette Eason and Terri Blackstock.
Review written by Patty Crane, Reference Librarian
