Dr. Stryker is an emergency room doctor in San Diego and he’s an ex-Navy SEAL. He met Senator Ripp when the senator had a mountain biking accident and needed a few stitches. He was intrigued and asked Dr. Stryker to be his personal doctor and security consultant. Being one of the statesmen that Dr. Stryker truly admired, he was flattered and accepted.

We meet Wyatt Stryker in Mexico where he has arrived early at the Senator’s private house. He interrupts what he believes to be a burglary. Only when the man is leaving he doesn’t appear to be taking anything with him. Some back and forth ensues and Wyatt almost has his brains splattered across the Senator’s lawn.

However, while partying down in Mexico someone broke into Wyatt’s home and kidnapped his son and tied up his sister-in-law who was doing the babysitting. When he and his wife arrive home they have a terrible surprise waiting. When they tried reporting the kidnapping through 911 they got the worst operator imaginable. So Wyatt decided that he and his buddy Javier (still a serving SEAL) would take matters into their own hands.

Turns out that a Mexican drug dealer (living in San Diego) was behind the whole thing. When they found out why and how they fit in, it is another terrible blow. But they discover Wyatt’s son is alive and where he has been taken. So they make a plan that involves breaking more laws in 2 countries than most people could dream of in a lifetime.

This book is full of action and kill the bad guys. With plenty of bad guys needing killing. I want to give this book 4 stars but I can’t. 3.5 is where I have to go. There were a few things that just bugged me too much to give it that extra .5 stars. It started off with a man who was hired as a security consultant not treating a threat to his principles home seriously, and almost getting himself killed. Then mostly this is a ‘guy’ story like Lethal Weapon or Die Hard, where you just go with it. But the author kept trying to add parts which felt like he was trying to make it feel more believable. To me it accentuated and pointed out how unbelievable the whole thing was.

This was the first such book by this author but I expect future books will smooth these kinds of issues out and I think I’ll enjoy them even more. It’s a good ‘kick the bad guys’ story and I suspect many won’t have issues with the things that bothered me. It does have a reasonable amount of violence so the squeamish might want to pass. ( )