A special thank you to Viking Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. 

Enthralling! Movie-Worthy. Please, please - small or big screen. Another great Harry Bosch character . . I love "edgy" Sully Carter!

In talented, Neely Tuckers’ highly anticipated follow-up toThe Ways of the Dead (Sully Carter #1) 2014 and Murder, D.C. (Sully Carter #2) 2015 with:

Sully Carter’s third and most intense case ONLY THE HUNTED RUN —a brilliant blending of historical, fact and fiction-taking him from the US Capitol, to the rural areas of Oklahoma.

Age old dark secrets, abuse, corruption, and violence of St. Elizabeth’s federal psychiatric hospital—for a complex, multi-layered "gritty" page-turner psychological crime thriller (literary fiction).

Landing on my Top Books of 2016 - a flawed, driven, razor-sharp and witty investigative reporter who never lets up, in this action-packed suspense adventure.

For fans of Michael Connelly (Harry Bosch), John Hart, John Grisham, Greg Iles, Lisa Scottoline, and David Baldacci.

Bourbon lover, reporter, Sully had been assigned a bullshit story about environmental regulations governing oil drilling in the Gulf. Then in the sagging hours of this afternoon errand, there had come the burst of automatic weapons fire, the bleeding and screaming, everything going out of focus and off kilter—the modern American nightmare.

The US Capitol --Sully alone in the core of the building that symbolized America’s allegedly invincible power. And his isolation telling him with every step that something had gone terribly wrong. Shooting, screaming, dead bodies, blown open – one gunman. An attack unlike any other in the nation’s history. Sully is in the center of the investigation.

Sully stumbles on the body of Barry Edmonds, an Oklahoma representative with stainless steel ice picks driven though each eye, plus he had been shot.

What the heck? Terry Waters the gunman, is calling it in, personally-- to 911 stating he had to kill him. It had gotten messy. The man was now gone.

"And indeed there will be time
For the yellow smoke that slides along the street,
Rubbing in back upon the window-panes;
There will be time, there will be time
To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;
There will be time to murder and create . . .
--TS. Eliot, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Purfrock"

When later running the guy, through the system, he had been certifiable since high school at the local Native American reservation, which appears to be the Sac and Fox. He dropped out in 1982. As a junior, in and out of wards and the local jailhouse for a year of two, then apparently kept at home. Also a suspect in some animal mutilations. No one has seen him in years. Why now?

A manhunt. The gunman had killed US Rep. Barry Edmonds and eight others (turns out to be ten in the end). Sully did not let him into the Capital or did he let him get out. He had gotten within ten feet of him without a gun, pistol, or badge.

Waters later becomes obsessed with Carter, and calls him directly, to commiserate about the fact that both their mothers were murdered years earlier, after reading his story in the paper or online. (at first I was thinking similar to Bosch’s mom connection); however, goes much, much deeper, and sinister.

Waters: “You’ve got to understand this. It’s key. Only the hunted run. I, me. I’m not the hunted. I’m not running. I hunt. I am the hunter.”

The most hunted man in American thinks he’s the predator? How did he know about his mom? Now this guy has his own reporter at his disposal.

Sully’s mom was shot to death in Tulsa, Louisiana. In her hair salon. Cash was left in the register. No apparent motive, no suspects. Three shots, two to the head. A pistol, not a shotgun. His girlfriend was also killed by shrapnel to the head in Bosnia. More to be uncovered here.

Grief, shrinks, doctors, counselors. The guy was a sad story, by nightfall he’s a monster. A thin line.

“Grief is a patient bastard. It’ll take its time, twist you into something you never were.”

The guy had to get attention. He was scattered and he stuttered. What is his story, and is this guy who he claims to be? When searching the history of Waters in Oklahoma, he uncovers danger, eccentric characters, horrors, abuse, and violence. A family of mental illness. The Thing in the Dark.

The great dream of peace, corrupted by the American nightmare of murder and blood. Who can he trust?

"Millions of lives teeming on the head of a pin, the universe neither concerned nor vindictive nor compassionate. People-they were just one little self-regarding species on one planet. They died and the universe was indifferent. It didn’t mean anything. It was like drowning in the ocean. The ocean wasn’t trying to drown you. It was just being the ocean. You got out of the water, fine; you got eaten by sharks, fine; you drowned, fine. It didn’t matter as far as the ocean went. That was life on Earth. It killed you without thinking."

If we are all so insignificant, why did settling the accounts of the dead matter so much?

A possibly mentally disturbed Native American, lightly educated and living in rural squalor, and yet he’s broken into the Capital, killed his target, escaped, and now he’s calling reporters and chatting about dead moms and obscure poetry.The FBI want to know from Carter, how he explains this?

Once Waters is apprehended in yet another shoot-out, Carter travels to the Oklahoma Indian reservation where Waters claims to hail from, hoping to learn what has driven the man to kill.

What Carter finds is a shocker, leading him on another dangerous mission. The man is charged with killing ten people in the US Capitol, four of them officers, one of them a woman. Meanwhile, Waters is being held at St. Elizabeths, a real-life mental hospital in southeast D.C., with which he’s obsessed.

Sully is on deadline, and his trip to Oklahoma really drives the story, when he learns Waters has been dead for nearly eight years, or so some say. . So who is the guy in St. Elizabeths? That means someone is locked up in DC who has assumed his identify—what do they have in common? This complicates their story.

"People did not walk off the face of the Earth. They left traces, fingerprints, property, financial transactions. What had Faulkner called it? A scratch mark on the face of oblivion?"

What is the link to the killing?

From friends, neighbors, father’s, mother’s, grandparents, the boy is being held in the heavily secured grounds of one of the most notorious mental hospitals in the US. Furthermore, in the most secured building on the godforsaken campus, on the lockdown ward of the hall for the criminally insane. How are they going to get to this guy (the ice-picker) to get their answers?

Ghosts and lunatics, the long halls of madness. Sully was the perfect witness. Who better to tell the tale?

Lobotomies. Walter Jackson Freeman. An insane asylum. Before Thorazine. Schizophrenics. Violence. Mental illness in America. Brains destroyed. Suicide. St. Elizabeths. Children caught up in the history.

One of Washington’s toughest, sexy, edgy and gutsy reporters – (and witty), Sully Carter, a seasoned foreign correspondent, gets in and out of jams while covering local D.C. – the fictional brainchild of one of D.C.’s most versatile reporters, Neely Tucker (man, can he write, and have never laughed so hard at his best one-liners).

Impressive! An excellent writer- At the Washington Post,Tucker has worked a lot of beats, writing everything from presidential profiles to poignant glimpses into lives touched by crime. He also writes fiction that is very much of this region and of this cultural moment, exploring themes of race, mental health care, crime and history through his Sully Carter series.

Wow, ONLY THE HUNTED RUN -is mind-blowing! His best yet. From twists and turns you do not see coming, and the personal and professional life of Sully, keeps readers glued to the pages.

Not for the faint of heart, Tucker explores the darkest evil places. History and legal buffs will enjoy the factual events inspired by the 1998 Russell Weston story, and the history of St E’s. Loved the relationship with Sully, Alexis, and nephew Josh on a personal level.

In addition to the hardcover supplied by the publisher (bookmarked so many pages)—"Thank you so much"- read in one sitting; I also purchased the audiobook, narrated byScott Sowers (sexy, bold, powerful), a perfect match for Neely’s Sully. (he is outstanding-always enjoy performances with Hart and Grisham, and other top author's audios).

Cannot wait to continue the journey with Sully Carter! Will Sully be able to let go of the voices, murder, violence, and horror? Highly recommend the author and this extraordinary "must read"series!

JDCMustReadBooks

Having read the other books in the Sully Carter series (highly recommend), I realized I had not read Neely Tucker’s Love in the Driest Season (read by the author)- his award-winning memoir. Immediately, purchased the audiobook, currently listening. Am mesmerized by his inspirational story!

What a great series and what a great book. I think the second one is better than the first which to me means, we got us a real author here. And I'm pretty sure he's only going to get better. I love the main character, of course he's a boozer, but he has been reporting on the war for years. I love his little smart ass comments which made me laugh out loud several times. Poor guy does seem to get beat up a lot, but when your dealing with the lowest forms of humans on earth you have to expect that.

This book started at the green starting line, full of suspense, danger, shady characters, and intrigue and did not stop until the checkered flag waved and said "winner" at the ending. And I loved the ending! Now unfortunately I'm going to have to wait another year for the next one. Ugh!

Thanks Penguin Group/Viking and Net Galley for providing me with this enjoyable e-galley in exchange for an honest review. I will definitely be recommending this one!!

By: Neely Tucker
Series: Sully Carter #2
ISBN: 9780670016594
Publisher: PENGUIN GROUP Viking
Publication Date: 6/30/2015
Format: Hardcover
My Rating: 5 Stars

A special thank you to PENGUIN GROUP Viking and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Neely Tucker returns with vigor, with his latest, MURDER, D.C. (Sully Carter #2), following the intense The Ways of the Dead (Sully Carter #1), a street-smart, fearless crime investigative reporter, who has been in war zones, now finds himself digging up connections in the underbellies of the drug world to solve a case.

Sully unravels deep dark secrets, racial injustice, slavery, and corruption -all the while, fighting against some high stakes-- from the politically connected, wealthy and powerful social circles; for a riveting razor-edge suspense mystery crime thriller of corruption, going back generations, from the southern states to urban streets of Washington, DC.

Having read The Ways of the Dead, was anxious to catch up with Sully, (love him), a journalist brought home from war in Bosnia and worn by loss, rage, and alcohol and his famous motorcycle. With his flaws and all, where he was involved in a deeply layered mystery, from the nation’s capital from the highest corridors of power to D.C.’s seedy underbelly, in the middle of violence and corruption. The saga continues . . .

As the novel opens, a few years later, Sully is living in a row house on Capitol Hill. It is spring of twenty-first century, and he finds himself on a fast boat pulling up to the waterfront channel, Frenchman’s Bend, when he sees a dead body pulled from the water. A few hours before deadline, his radar is up when he begins questioning the homicide cop.

For the last thirty years, the Bend, a park, scarcely acknowledged by the city--considered a drug park run. If Sully had not been raised in Louisiana, a state still haunted by slavery, he might have thought the Bend was poisoned or cursed. A city block of malignant soil so infected that it seeped into the souls of the living. The end had been claiming bodies for more than a century and a half. Sully has to think about where the slaves stood as they were pushed onto boats headed down to the Carolinas, Georgia, or Florida; Key West and back up to Mobile, Gulfport, or New Orleans.

The Bend, had been the District’s most notorious antebellum slave market, with long gone wooden pens, slaves brought from the farms lining the Potomac or Anacostia put on a platform and sold off onto ships bound for cotton plantations down south. It had opened long before Washington was the capital but stayed in business for decades, the shame of the city, slaves force-marched through the streets in neck shackles. Its stigma was so great that the land had never been built upon from Irish, Germans, and even blacks, Jews, not even in post WWII and the building boom.

Of course, just one more dead body in the middle of a drug haven, would most likely turn out to be another drug shooting in the middle of a city of drug wars; averaging almost a homicide every day, year round. An unsolved killing for John Parker, head of DC Homicide, and for Sully, a dead-end story which would take too long, coming up with nothing substantial. (Or, so he thinks at the time).

The murder victim turns out to be a young twenty-one year old African-American gay man, Billy Ellison with a bullet in his head. However, Ellison is the son of Washington, D.C's most influential African-American family. So he is gaining more media attention, than the norm. The family is wealthy and very politically connected. Billy was finishing his junior year at Georgetown and going into law like his old man. So unless he was caught up in drugs, why the murder, and is it connected to the Bend?

Turns out, Billy is the last heir of a prominent family in the nation’s capital. Gay and shot in the head at close range, indicating a drug deal, being what constituted most killings in the Bend and a strip of gay clubs nearby down on the O Street. Is there a connection between the place, and this high powered family? Sully is determined to find answers.

The cops are unable to uncover any leads; however, relentless Sully smells something dirty and feels the family’s law firm spokesman has something to hide. Why is he answering for the mother? Sully is obsessed with digging deeper, with his drug dealing connections, he attempts to uncover a string of deceit from the most prominent social circles to the back streets --and powerful giants who want their business to stay buried.

The Bend, located in the Southwest DC area near the brick walls of Fort McNair, small US army base running to the end of the peninsula—a place of prostitutes, drug dealers, and murders. Sully begins digging into other killings in previous years. Over the past year forty-four people had been killed in the Bend, a knoblike park of little more than an acre, and not one had been solved! It was where DC went to kill and be killed. Frenchman’s Bend was the murder capital of the murder capital. Three this year, and all three dumped in the channel.

The family background: 19th century family patriarch, Nathaniel Ellison made his fortune in banking, and extended down the generations. His son, Lambert, followed his father into the bank as manager, as did his son, Lambert II, until it was consumed in a merger with a larger bank in 1965, under the management of Lambert III. Delores Ellison (mother of Billy), his only child, now works as a strategist at the law firm of Sheldon Stevens, one of the most influential and power brokers in Washington. Of course, Stevens acts as a family spokesman, warning off Sully, with a restraining order, and had him escorted from the funeral by his PIs. Now Delores Ellison had a dead husband, a dead son and a lawyer, Shellie who wants Sully out of the way.

Sully is working with Sly for the key to finding out what is happening in the Bend. Whoever killed Sly’s mole, (Dee), may lead them to finding the killer of Billy. So Sully is about working what angles he has. Billy and Dee both died and now he may be the next victim.

Sully is threatened and warned to stay away from the story, not only from the higher ups, his boss, and the paper’s entire legal department, before this story breaks. After all, the paper paid him to deal with warlords and psychopaths and South African thugs abroad, so why not a few warlords here in the states? Now, three bodies in three week, this is no accident. Suspended so many time he cannot count. You have got to love Sully—you tell him he cannot do something, he will be even more determined to prove you wrong.

Wow, a complex, perfectly-paced, page-turner, crossing several genres, from crime, mystery, thriller, to historical fiction with investigative journalism at its grittiest! Tucker delivers witty, edgy, and razor-sharp dialogue, for a taunt, top-notch engrossing read, you cannot put down.

Fans of Michael Connelly, Karin Slaughter, Greg Iles and fast-action crime thrillers will devour, and who better to deliver it than the author himself, with his extensive background! (have you read his bio?) Hello, take a look.

Neely Tucker draws heavily on his two decades reporting on crime and armed conflict from around the globe to create Sully Carter and his complicated moral realm in The Ways of the Dead and Murder, D.C.; Highly recommend both. You do not want to miss this series! Looking forward to the next.

The Ways of the Dead  (Sully Carter #1) 

Wow, this one was a grabber. It grabbed me from the very beginning and I just couldn't stop reading. Not a whole lot of suspects but a lot of girls missing in a very small radius. I just knew at the beginning that those three teenagers were not the ones that killed Sarah, but I for sure didn't know who did.

I think this book was well written with a lot of main character development. I did have trouble keeping up with what news guy did what.

I was very entertained and I whole heartedly recommend this book. Just don't start it too late in the day, you WILL NOT be able to put it down. I looked down and saw I had three hours left to read. The next time I looked it was 47 minutes. Time flies when your really into a book like I was.

Huge thanks to Penguin and Net Galley for providing me with this free e-galley in exchange for an honest review.

Read this review and others like it at my blog Brains and Beauty.

I'm not usually into nonfiction books or Africa, but my mom recommended this to me. And this book pleasantly surprised me.

It’s written by Neely Tucker who comes from my part of Mississippi and even mentions my hometown. So that gave me some incentive to get into it. At its heart this book is about him and his wife trying to adopt a baby from a orphanage in Zimbabwe during the AIDS crisis on the late 1990s.

I honestly had a little trouble getting into at first and thought it was little depressing. But, once I hit the halfway point I couldn’t put it down! There is so much going on with him reporting first hand during wars in Africa and how the government somewhat turns against them, and the struggle to save a little girl from possible death is riveting. I can’t believe how incredible this story is and it’s all true.

If you prefer friction or are looking to get out of your reading box then I recommend you try this out. And of course it’s a great read for those interested in Africa or adoption stories.

I hope you check this book out and let me know what you’re reading to get out of your book comfort zone.