A PROMISE TO KILL is a terrific novel with a timeless premise: a stranger wanders into a bad situation not of his making, kicks posterior, gets his own posterior kicked, and emerges from the other side, bloodied and bent but unbowed. Clyde Barr is the stranger, and Erik Storey (isn’t that a great name for an author?) is the man who introduced him to the literary world in 2016’s NOTHING SHORT OF DYING. This second novel meets and exceeds the promise of that work, with enough explosions, suspense and fisticuffs to fill three books with change left over. Naturally, I loved every word of it.

"[I]f you are looking for a high-grade action thriller with military overtones, you will be hard-pressed to find anything this year that approaches the quality of this one."

Clyde, an ex-serviceman with an extremely capable skill set, is doing what he does best at the beginning of A PROMISE TO KILL --- drifting --- as he makes his way from a general Point A to a vaguely defined Point B on horseback in Utah, heading for a mountain range to do some hunting. But when he discovers an elderly Indian in physical distress, he changes his plans immediately, transporting the man to a hospital in a nearby small town. Clyde quickly learns that the town, little more than an outpost on an Indian reservation, is the subject of a de facto takeover by a motorcycle gang that considers terrorizing the residents to be sport in which they can engage while they wait for...something.

He tries to stay out of the way, but trouble has a way of finding him, particularly when the elderly man’s beautiful daughter --- a doctor at the local clinic --- and her teenage son become a target of the gang. Despite being outgunned and outnumbered, Clyde manages to hold his own against a couple of attacks by the hoodlums. It is during one of his counterattacks, though, that he finds out the purpose of the gang’s presence in the town, which has potential repercussions for the region and possibly the country at large.

Recruiting a few of the small town’s able-bodied residents, Clyde initiates a series of violent showdowns with the gang and their mysterious contact who will stop at nothing to complete his mission. For Clyde, it’s personal, and goes beyond saving the town and the woman for whom he is developing a deep attraction. Failure is not an option.

Storey does a terrific job with A PROMISE TO KILL. The book is a homage in its way to Shane, a classic Western film over 60 years old, but one can also trace its heritage back to such pulp classics as the Doc Savage series as well as more recent (1970s) series like The Executioner. The violence quotient may be a bit high for some, but it won’t be for others. And if you are looking for a high-grade action thriller with military overtones, you will be hard-pressed to find anything this year that approaches the quality of this one.