SNIPER by Vaughn C. Hardacker

Publisher:  Skyhorse Publishing
Published:   February, 2014
ISBN:  978-1626365575
Genre:   Thriller

Format:  Ebook
Obtained via:  ARC – Edelweiss – Above the Tree Line
Reviewed by name and email address:  Gina Gina@loveromancesandmorereviews.com

TWO-1/2

Just an ordinary day with ordinary people going to and from work, play or just going about their lives, passing through the Boston Commons.  On the corner of Beacon and Charles a man makes a decision.  Not just any decision, but one he’s been planning.  One that will forever alter the lives of those who become part of that decision. 

But it’s not those four people who he has his sights on.  At least not for his long range goal.  No, it’s a far more reaching and nefarious goal.  But these people are the first step of his plan. He is a sniper…trained to kill…to silently enter a space, make his kill and move on, unseen, unknown, maybe never to be caught.  He takes his shots and before the bodies have completely fallen he is gone.

Detective Mike Houston and his partner Anne Bouchard are assigned to the case.  Bit by bit Houston begins to see similarities, things that chill him because they are not all that different from his own training as a U.S. Marine sniper.  Could the killer be one of his own?

But the killing doesn’t end on that sunny day on Boston Common.  The killer is coming and coming for Mike Houston.

Based on the blurb I eagerly anticipated digging into Vaughn C. Hardackers’ SNIPER.  It sounded like it was going to be a hard hitting, non-stop, white-knuckle thriller that would keep me up nights turning the pages (or the screens on my Kindle.)  Sadly, it didn’t deliver.

The story does have quite a bit to recommend it, especially with the quotes that precede each chapter.  Some were pretty compelling and for the most part all were meaningful, at least to me.  But there action became stunted with pretty much non-stopping narrative.  Yes, there was dialogue, but a good part of it was stilted, brusque and unemotional.  At times I could almost hear the narrator droning on and on. 

The rationale for the sniper’s goal was chilling.  And when he turned his sights on Houston I wanted to hell at him to stop, just stop!  Because it was too awful to contemplate the outcome if the killer succeeded. 

If you don’t mind a lot of narrative and don’t mind a slow moving story, SNIPER is a good choice. 

This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.