In a prologue set six years prior to the present day, we meet two young women who are completely nude. Alina and Ivie leap into the nighttime waters off the coast of Miami from the Dreamtime. They are risking their lives because they just had to kill someone who was attacking them on board the yacht and decide to take their chances with an ocean full of jellyfish and sharks as they swim toward the distant Miami shore.

This intense opening sets the perfect tone for BREAK EVERY RULE, a terrific stand-alone effort from Brian Freeman, who has made quite a name for himself in the thriller game. He has penned multiple series, the most popular being his Jason Bourne and Jonathan Stride novels.

"Tommy knows that when your family is threatened, you must break every rule to protect them. This is evident throughout BREAK EVERY RULE and makes it the type of novel that will be difficult to put down, and you’ll need a minute to catch your breath."

Freeman often writes what he knows best. As a recent transplant to Florida with his wife, Marcia --- to whom he dedicates this book --- he has set the action in Central and Southern Florida on an island in Nassau, Bahamas. The present-day story takes place in the small town of Micanopy outside of Gainesville. Tommy Miller lives there with his wife, Teresa, and their infant daughter, Rosalita. We learn pretty much from the get-go that Tommy is not what or who he claims to be. He is a man with a new identity attempting to get away from a past that includes working with a top-secret group known as the Outsiders, which was made up mostly of ex-special forces members who were killing machines.

Tommy becomes concerned when he doesn't hear from Teresa. She left with Rosalita to meet up with her former employer, Kim Fong, who works at the local library. Police detective Lindy Jax is drawn into a case involving an apparent abduction of a young woman outside of a shop in Micanopy. The lady in question is indeed Teresa, but eyewitnesses did not see Rosalita with her, which is confirmed through video footage. Lindy then spies a mysterious figure watching her from across the street. It’s Tommy, and he wants more information so he can do what he does best to help get his wife and daughter back.

Lindy doesn’t know what to make of Tommy and has to consider him a suspect up front, but she doesn’t find much in his or Teresa’s background. She eventually will discover who Tommy really is, as well as Teresa, but it doesn’t change her mission to get mother and daughter back. Tommy learns that Kim was found shot to death next to her vehicle and had Rosalita, whom she intended to bring home to him.

As far as Tommy is concerned, his past does not exist. However, he will need to call upon his prior identity of Tiger in order to reunite with his family. He contacts an old friend and expert sniper to assist him as he traces Teresa’s whereabouts to a hidden island in the Bahamas.

I won’t divulge any spoilers here, but I can say that the extremely dangerous situation that Tommy and later Lindy are separately stepping into involves an island similar to the one that Jeffrey Epstein operated, where young women (many of them underage) are made available to wealthy guests. This also ties back to the events of the prologue, and all is answered through some terrific storytelling and breakneck action.

Tommy knows that when your family is threatened, you must break every rule to protect them. This is evident throughout BREAK EVERY RULE and makes it the type of novel that will be difficult to put down, and you’ll need a minute to catch your breath. Here’s hoping that Brian Freeman considers showing us more of this fascinating protagonist in the near future.