Fearless by M.W. Craven
Publication Date: June 29, 2023
Summary from Goodreads:
Ben Koenig is nobody’s hero . . . because he doesn’t exist.
Six years back Ben Koenig headed up the US Marshal’s Special Operations Group. They were the unit who hunted the bad guys. The really bad guys. They did this so no one else had to.
And then one day Ben sold his house, liquidated his assets and disappeared off the face of the earth. He told no one why and left no forwarding address. For six years he became a grey man. Someone you didn’t remember. He drifted from town to town, from state to state, never visiting the same place twice. He was untraceable – officially, he no longer existed.
But now his face is plastered across every television screen in the country. Someone from Ben’s past is going to extraordinary lengths to find him and they don’t care how they do it. They have a job for him, a revenge mission, one Ben won’t be able to refuse.
Because in the hellish heat of the Chihuahuan desert lies a town called Gauntlet. Some people in Gauntlet have a secret and they’ll do anything protect it. And they know Ben is coming.
They’ve killed before and they’ll kill again.
It’s easy to dismiss Ben Koenig as just another drifter, someone you don’t need to concern yourself about. But that would be a mistake. Because Ben has a condition, a unique disorder that means he is incapable of experiencing fear.
And that makes Ben Koenig a different kind of animal . . .
Confession:
This thriller was a nonstop, action packed story with an interesting protagonist. I more or less enjoyed it, but I could have done with a little less graphic violence. I don’t mind graphic violence usually, but this book had some scenes that were way over the top and in the last third of the book, there was an excessive amount. Most of this violence also didn’t seem necessary. But other than that I thought this was a great addition to the thriller genre.
Ben Koenig is a very interesting character. He has a medical condition that impacts his ability to feel fear. He feels a lot of other emotions, but not fear. So this makes him a perfect person to be in charge of an elite group that captures some really hard core criminals. But this inability to feel fear also impairs his ability to assess risk, and this sometimes gets him into trouble. It also pretty much turns him into a killing machine in this story. But as I said, he can still feel other emotions, and he is really a good guy and even feels remorse when he has to kill a lacky. He makes friends easily, but he also makes a lot of enemies and some of them are quite dangerous.
The plot of the story is pretty basic, but the reason why his ex boss’s daughter was kidnapped was quite complex. As with most thrillers you have to suspend quite a bit of disbelief with this, but most of the plot was just on this side of plausible. It is full of action with some very nice slow times that were often quite humorous. Like when Ben is describing his tasks of going to various stores to pick up supplies:
“At the general store I got eight cans of Wolf Brand Chili. At Mike and Sons I got twenty-five feet of nylon Paramore.
And outside Lynne’s Bakery I got zapped in the neck with a Vipertek VTS-989 stun gun.
A mixed bag of a morning then.“
The subplot of why Ben disappeared six years ago, also plays into this story quite a bit. Of course his resurfacing after so many years has the people who were looking for him up their game as well. This plot also ties into the ending that leaves us hanging a little bit about what might happen in the next story.
I really enjoyed the writing style and the characters. I liked that it was written in the first person as that made Ben a bit more likable I think. The setting and the descriptions were also well done. I have heard that this author’s other series are less violent, so I will probably give them a look.
This is a solid addition to the thriller genre and those of you who enjoy that type of story will enjoy this one. I really did like it for the most part, but would have liked a little less graphic violence. But I will probably pick up the next book in the series and I will be checking out the other series by this author.
Confessions of a Serial Reader 