Advance Review of Death's White Horses by Palmetto Reviews:
Death's White Horses is the third installment in author Marc Rainer's crime drama series featuring savvy prosecutor Jeff Trask. A fictionalized account of the Mexican drug cartel wars, this latest offering presents a dark, gripping and violent tale of bone-chilling crimes, barberous criminals and the law enforcement officials on both sides of the border grimly charged with fighting a bloody, seemingly hopeless and endless war. Many of the characters portrayed are taken from real life, such as drug kingpins Chapo Guzman and Heriberto Lazcano. Others, including heroes Captain Luis Aguilar and Trask himself are composites of several real men who have fought the good fight with honor.
Even as it reflects the headlines and outlines of current events, Death's White Horses gives an insider view; the unrealistic expectations placed on the footsoldiers of the drug war, attempting to use legal methods to oppose impossibly wealthy, well-armed and absolutely ruthless antagonists. The violence of the cartels is shocking, brutal, yet the novel merely mirrors what has been happening in the real world.
With Death's White Horses, author Marc Rainer has provided another unflinching, engrossing chronicle; his gritty take on the Mexican drug wars will be welcomed by his growing fan base.
Kirkus Review of Death's White Horses:
Rainer’s third thriller featuring Jeff Trask (Horns of the Devil, 2013, etc.) pits the D.C. attorney against drug dealers.
When the daughter of U.S. Sen. Hugh Heidelberg, a Texas oil tycoon, dies of a heroin overdose, Sen. Sherwin Graves of Georgia requests that the case be assigned to Trask, a man he’s worked with before. Trask’s assignment: to find the people who supplied the girl with the drugs. The attorney’s team, which includes an FBI task force, uncovers similar deaths among prostitutes in the D.C. area, but the investigation soon stalls due to a lack of evidence. This changes when Trask attends a conference in Texas and meets fellow attendee Luis Aguilar, a major in the Mexican marines. Aguilar and his men, in the heart of the Mexican cartel wars, have been trying to put a stop to the Los Zetas gang, whose members have been massacring civilians and police alike. The major has an inside man providing intel, which Aguilar passes along to Trask. Authorities on both sides of the border must work together to stop further drug transportation and prevent further loss of life. This installment is less of a legal thriller than previous entries, as Trask spends most of the story in the field rather than in the courtroom, but it still focuses on strategy over action. Indeed, it describes its action scenes primarily after the fact, as when a character updates Aguilar on the cartel’s raids. Trask remains a perplexing, colorful figure; he speaks his mind and is unapologetic when things don’t go as planned. But even he can’t outshine the versatile supporting cast, which includes Frank Aurrichio, an enigmatic “stockbroker” on the Zetas’ payroll; Detective Tim Wisniewski and Officer Randi Rhodes, who pursue a budding romance; vice cop Gordon “Hammer” Hamilton; and Trask’s wife, Lynn, an FBI analyst. Trask does get his time in the legal limelight when a couple of baddies go to trial, but the investigation thrives mainly on the team’s collective effort.
An invigorating thriller with an engaging protagonist surrounded by equally worthy characters.
Reader Review by "Goldenmom:"
Death's White Horses is the third installment in the Jeff Trask crime drama series by Marc Ranier. I certainly hope that it is not the last. Like the previous two books in this series, the main character, Jeff Trask, an assistant US Attorney in Washington DC, finds himself with a startling murder case and works with the team of FBI agents, police, politicians and other interesting and assorted people to work the many facets of the crime to solve not only the murder, but a much more involved series of illegal activities in the painful world of the Mexican drug cartels. The author's knowledge of this world is truly profound, and the story whips along and draws the reader with it. It is again impossible to put down the book once the story grabs you by the throat and you hold on for dear life until the astounding conclusion. The author's previous two books, Capital Kill and Horns of the Devil, deal with respectively, the Jamaican drug gangs and the El Salvadoran drug lords. Death's White Horses is about the Mexican drug cartels, particularly Los Zetas, an extremely vicious and violent gang of thugs that are responsible for an unimaginable number of murders and decapitations in both Mexico and the border states of the US. If you like gritty realism and exactingly accurate legal maneuverings, this is the legal thriller for you. This book is very well edited, and the author can really construct a great story with intelligent grammar and sentence structure (which seems to be lacking in way too many books these days!) We should all acknowledge his English and grammar teachers for work well done! I personally liked this book the best of the series. It seemed more personal, perhaps because I am more aware of the Mexican cartels having spent many years living in Texas myself. This is definitely another 5 star read, and Marc, I cannot wait for the next book. Get to work!