Some Die Nameless by Wallace Stroby
Mulholland Books/ Little Brown/ Hachette, $26.00, 337 pages, ISBN 978-0-316-44020-2
Every single human being on the planet has a past; the deeds, events and situations that have shaped us and made us into the persons we are today. Some of those experiences were happy and good . . . others, not so great . . . and a few of them we do our absolute best to put out of our minds forever. But sometimes, no matter how honest an effort, the past just won’t stay in the rear-view mirror. Instead, it drives up, cruises on through, then cuts in front and runs you off of the big highway of life. (What a metaphor!) That’s what happens to an ex-airborne army ranger named Ray Devlin in a propulsive new thriller that’ll keep you nailed to the page long after you were supposed to be off somewhere, doing something else.
Some Die Nameless, by Wallace Stroby, begins in Florida, where fifty-four year old Ray Devlin is semi-retired, living on his boat and off the grid. He takes odd jobs in construction to make ends meet, keeps to himself and does his best to put his past as a mercenary soldier behind him. He’s seen action all over the world as a sergeant in a tight-knit group of commandos, working for a governmental contracting company run by an elusive man named Kemper. But after Rays last job in South America left him severely wounded, he recuperated, then walked away from life as a soldier of fortune and hasn’t seen, or been in touch with any of his old comrades-in-arms for twenty years. He’s surprised then, when one of the handful of men who went with him on that last fateful mission, a trooper under Devlins command named Bell, turns up at the south Florida marina where Ray’s docked, looking to reconnect. In less time than it takes to drink a bottle of beer however, the two men are locked in a fight to the death.
At the same time, up in Philadelphia, the discovery of a decomposing corpse in an abandoned house triggers a young, ambitious reporters instincts for a major story, even though the failing newspaper she’s working for doesn’t want her to pursue it. She and Devlin are forced to team up as the two cases unfold, becoming evermore intertwined, sinister and deadly, with hitman and killers lurking on every page. If thrillers are your thing, you don’t want to miss Some Die Nameless, because Wallace Stroby is one of the hottest crime fiction writers working today. He’s fast becoming a national treasure, as well as one of the MBRs personal favorites!