John Gilstrap - At All Costs

REview by Brian Lowen on bookshow 26th March
An excellent thriller. The tension built up by the writer (who I have not heard of before)
towards the end of the story was really terrific and had my heart beating faster as I came up to the end of each chapter – only to be left on edge, with a new scene in the next chapter. However it all turns out well in the end and it has a good conclusion with everything nicely tidied up and satisfactorily resolved.

The storyline involves a man and wife who are part of an environmental clean up team who go to a large concrete bunker full of old military weapons, ammunition and poisonous gasses to assess what is there and how it can be properly disposed of. The bunker is part of an old military site in Arkansas, USA and has been closed down for many years.

Suddenly all hell breaks loose – members of the team are shot and the store is blown up. The only ones to escape alive are our heroes, Jake and Carolyn Brighton, and they are then framed for being responsible for all the killings and destruction and go on the run from the FBI and for 24 years keep moving around the country changing jobs and usually living in trailer parks. ( The scene at the ammunition dump is told as a flashback.)
They finally get so fed up of being on the run that they decide to try and find out the truth and why they were framed. They manage to enlist the help of Carolyn’s rich uncle and set about tracking the real killer down. I don’t think I am giving too much away to say that it is the deputy head of the FBI who was involved in illegally selling guns and ammunition from the bunker and realised he was going to be found out when the clean up team went in so hired a deadly killer to get rid of all the evidence and anyone who was involved
Once Jake and Carolyn start investigating they are put on the hit list and it becomes a race to see if they can find out the truth before they are killed.

A very good read – not recommended for late night reading if you are susceptible to nightmares!