BOOK REVIEW: "First Contract" by Frank Westworth

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“First Contract” is an origin story, chronicling the recruitment of protagonist JJ Stone into the bloody world of black ops and the details of his first assignment. This was my first introduction to Stone--and his creator, Frank Westworth--but the chances of it being my last are about as slim as me having tea and crumpets with Queen Elizabeth this evening. Because I don’t like crumpets. Or tea, for that matter. Except iced tea, sweetened. With lots of sugar. But I digress…

Speaking of sugar, this short story doesn’t have much (if any). Instead, it sports all the ingredients action-thriller fans crave: a rough-and-tumble protagonist, plenty of action, brutal violence, crackling dialogue, and deftly-handled plot twists. JJ Stone is a character you can root for, despite the fact that he is a bit more ruthless than your typical "hero" (seriously, check out how coldly he executes some prisoners at the beginning). Oh, and he rides a Harley Davidson, which instantly makes him jump up at least two notches on the coolness scale.

This story packs a lot of action into not a lot of pages (about 25 or so) and even better, it’s fairly graphic. Maybe not Joseph Rosenberger or David Alexander graphic, but it’s not kiddie stuff either.  I am not a fan of sterile, "PG-13" violence and neither, it seems, is Westworth. Things get messy and for that, God bless him and pass the brewskies.

While style is always subjective, it does merit mention that the prose frequently leans toward the overly descriptive end of the spectrum. Not flowery or anything like that—this is an action thriller, not Jane Austen—but sometimes the writing gets a little wordy when something shorter and punchier might have sufficed. That said, the thriller genre is oversaturated, bloated with authors who strip their prose down to the bare bones, barren of any sense of style in the quest to be described as "tight, terse, and economical" just like every other novel in this market, so it can be refreshing to read something that dares to be a little different and roams down the road of richer language.

Bottom line, if you're a fan of the guns ‘n’ guts genre, Westworth is well worth checking out.