JOHNSTONE COUNTRY. WHERE THE WILL DEFIES FEAR. They call him “The Rig Warrior.” Name: Barry Rivers. Occupation: Long haul trucker. Special skills: Defender of freedom. Patriot. Government sanctioned killer. A NATION OFF THE RAILSNo one saw the first attack coming. A perfectly orchestrated assault on a mass-transit railroad line that left countless Americans dead. Then came more attacks. More rail … rail systems sabotaged. More civilian lives lost. Intelligence experts are convinced this is no ordinary terrorist attack. To pull off something like this, it would take a deep-state traitor with dark foreign connections. And to stop them, it will take someone who isn’t afraid to shed blood. A HERO OFF THE GRIDEnter Barry Rivers, the Rig Warrior. An urban legend in the intelligence community, Rivers has been living off the radar for years. But when he sees his country under attack, he reaches out to his son in the FBI to track down the enemies in our own government. To these high-ranking traitors, Rivers is a threat to their global agenda. But when Rivers revs up his tricked-out 18-wheeler—and goes after a runaway train on a collision course with disaster—all bets are off. The war is on. And with Barry Rivers at the wheel, it’s going to be the ultimate knockdown, drag-out fight for America’s future . . . Live Free. Read Hard.
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Title: Knockdown
Author: William W. Johnstone and J. A. Johnstone
Pages: 400
Year: 2020
Publisher: Pinnacle
My rating: 5 out of 5
Wow! Here is one of the best thrillers of 2020! As I read the story, it just kept getting better the farther along I read. Barry Rivers and his nephew Jake are together in a battle of good versus evil, and they never quit seeking the truth. Barry is a well-known character in the Rig Warrior series, and even though I have yet to read them, it didn’t hamper my ability to thoroughly get caught up in the nonstop action.
Jake Rivers is a Special Agent for the FBI. He isn’t aware of all his uncle Barry has been involved in or who he knows, but he respects the man a lot. When a reader opens the novel, they quickly get pulled into what appears to be a bar fight in Mexico between Barry and another man, then running for his life aiming to get back on U.S. soil. Jake is with him but is not aware of what is really happening and wants answers from Barry as soon as things settle down.
What Barry learns is what sets him and Jake on a trajectory that involves terrorism, treason, bullets flying and a possible budding romance for Jake. Gretchen is another character who appears early in the story. She becomes entangled in the web Barry and Jake are in while they seek to uncover a plot to make one man in charge of everyone else. Gretchen works for Homeland Security and I really like how she meets Jake plus her ability to fight for what is right and overcome overwhelming odds.
I don’t want to spoil this suspense-filled thriller in saying much more, just know that this is a book where the action never lets up. Unlike a top when spinning winds down and then falls, this book will keep spinning and spinning until the final pages are read. I hope you enjoy this latest stand-alone story as much as I did. I know I plan on reading the other books where Barry Rivers is the main hero in the Rig Warrior series starting with Rig Warrior, Wheels of Death and Eighteen-Wheeler Avenger.
Note: The opinions shared in this review are solely my responsibility.
Okay. This is the fourth book in the Rig Warrior series. The first three were e-published in March, April, and May. This one came out in August. Also, the others were by William Johnstone. This one is by William and J.A. Johnstone. The others were written, I would say, around 1980 plus or minus. You can tell by the dialogue and the specs on the trucks. I don’t remember the last time I heard a SQHP rear mentioned.
This one is also decades after the first three. Now Barry is assisted by his nephew, Jake and instead of Barry getting the girl, Jake does.
Jake is an FBI agent, and he and Barry get involved in stopping a terrorist attack by Middle Eastern bad guys in league with a deep state organization.
Jake and Barry have to save the United States from a coup.
Totally unrealistic, but once you get past that, not a bad story.
This entire series could have used some proof-reading. Seemed to be just a “well I have these already written, let’s publish them” type of series.