Lethal Range

A Matthew Redd Thriller

De: Ryan Steck

Narrado por: Chris Abell

From the Real Book Spy, Ryan Steck, comes another riveting Matthew Redd thriller.

On an island off the coast of Spain, Matthew Redd and his FBI fly team surveil a luxury villa in hopes of catching a high-value fugitive. But when Redd leads an unauthorized raid on the villa, he discovers they’ve been set up, and he is sent home to face the consequences of defying orders.

Meanwhile, Redd’s wife, Emily, is on a remote stretch of Montana road driving their sick baby to the doctor when she finds her SUV surrounded by a biker gang intent on harassing her. As the bikers pound her fenders and her infant son screams, Emily fights to keep the SUV on the road . . . and then suddenly the bikers back off, leaving her safe but shaken.

Redd returns home, suspended from his team and certain that he is to blame for Emily’s harassment after his run-in with the local biker gang the year before. Fearing that there is more to come, he prepares to defend his family. But Redd soon learns the gang is stronger in numbers than he could’ve imagined, and there is more behind their vendetta than he could’ve guessed. As his son’s condition worsens and his beloved ranch faces financial ruin, he finds himself fighting a war on multiple fronts―one he can’t win on his own.

©2023 Ryan Steck (P)2023 One Audiobooks

Blah Blah Blah

it takes the writer 9 hrs to tell a 4 hr story.
The hero gets beat, beat beat, beat.
in the world we live in today, kill the bad guy.
kill his or her underlings.
stop all the liberal crap. put justice to work at the minute.
This is what is wrong with America. too many bleeding hearts.
Destroy any semblance of evil. At the time evil raises its head.
I made the mistake of listening to Totrens 2 books, wont seek the 3rd

Great sequel

This was a great follow up to Steck’s first book. The character development was great, the story line captures you and it is well researched.

Action packed book with lots of great characters

This is the first book by this author that I have read. Very action packed and very good storyline. Keeps you on the edge of your seat. Good read

Action

Lots of it. And family dynamics through out. Highly recommend. Hard to put it down.

He Did It Again!

Matty Redd is back with a vengeance! And Ryan Steck and Chris Abell make him come alive again! Great continuation of the story and great action as well!

Ryan has did it again!!!

Down to earth believable thriller with great characters….can’t wait for the next one. It’s one heck of a ride!!

5 stars!

Absolutely love everything about this series! Great storyline and great narration! If you’re hesitant, don’t be. You won’t be disappointed at all

Lethal Range leaves the reader asking for more!

Steck moves beyond the typical thriller protagonist with Matthew Redd. Strong, assertive, and not afraid of a fight, Redd is also vulnerable, introspective at times, and struggles with every man’s issues like raising a family and paying his taxes on time. Melding these character complexities with a propelling narrative and a diabolical villain that the reader will love to hate, it’s hard to ask more of Steck in his second installment. Can’t wait to see what’s in store for Matthew Redd in number three.

Fun stand-alone and series, but lacks depth

I listened to the 3 books currently available before writing this review, I liked that each book could be enjoyed as a stand-alone book. The plot and action kept my interest. That said, the 2nd and 3rd book follow an unrealistic pattern taken from this first book.

Not as good as the first book

This is the second book in a series by new author Ryan Steck. I came across his name and the announcement that he had a new book coming out in the same genre when reading a review on his website "therealbookspy.com" and thought I would give it a try. I did enjoy the first book in the series and was eager to continue onwards.

Unfortunately, our MMC in the series - Matthew Redd - seems to undergo a serious personality change between the two books that was pretty hard to ignore. Maybe I'm just not remembering it correctly - granted there were probably a couple of hundred books in between reading the 2 books - but I'm not sure that I would have continued on with this series. What was the change? Well, in the first book, we are introduced to Redd. He is a former Marine Raider who finds himself in the middle of a conspiracy when his entire team is ambushed and killed, yet he survives. Then we discover that he only survived because he was kidnapped and drugged and did not wake up until after the fact. There are a variety of emotions that he undergoes as he deals with the guilt and the anger and the need for retribution - not to mention that there really is a conspiracy going on. But we see some depth in his character, and I even felt investment in his struggle.

Now, we get to this book. Redd has discovered his "real" father and let's just say that his feelings towards the man are not warm. The father is with the FBI, in upper management, and runs the division that Redd contracts out of. Redd has his reasons for his feelings towards his father, but it FELT somewhat immature, especially when there were issues that were work related. I could deal with his initial behavior because sometimes parental relationships are complicated.

The book starts off with an FBI mission gone wrong and Redd is reprimanded for his actions. He goes home to his ranch in Montana where he has a wife and a very young infant. Without going into spoilers, there was an action that happened over a year ago that sets off a chain reaction with a very deadly Motorcycle Club - with dangerous and deadly consequences towards Redd and his family.

Here is where it got hard. Redd is supposedly a decorated combat veteran with successful leadership experience. Yet, when things start to happen in his life, he starts making really stupid decisions. Stupid is not a word that I normally use, but it is the only one that I can think of that accurately describes his actions. He doesn't stop and think, he doesn't ask for help, he just reacts. EVERY time. Apparently, his adopted father had this saying that he always told him - something like Don't Be Stupid - or something like that. This just makes it that more ironic because it feels like that is all he does in this book. In this genre in particular, the best MC's are the ones who are smart and patient. Yes, things tend to get out of hand and that is what makes these books thrillers, but there is only so much that a reader can push on the believability scale before it just completely pulls you out of the story. I kept blowing past that believability factor in this book and instead of the book being enjoyable, it became irritating.

<spoiler> I mean, for Redd to realize that the bikers have taken over his house and instead of waiting for help, ANY help, he decides to barge in alone....unarmed. Then, after he is beaten to the point of unconsciousness, he wakes up and thinks, "I have to go after the bad guys" My first thought is, can you even walk? But no, he THEN gets in another hand-to-hand fight that gets so unbelievable that it was like reading a Marvel Superhero book with bodies literally being picked up and thrown everywhere. He SOMEHOW survives this (again, how are you even walking?) and then immediately takes off to go "finish this. " Apparently, his smart plan was to infiltrate the biker compound..... BY HIMSELF. Seriously? </spoiler> This behavior was consistent throughout the entire book. Impulsive, impatient actions. This is not a character that I can empathize with, not when I want to throw him out a window.

Then there is the storyline. To me, when the twist is unveiled, the cooperation between certain forces, it felt forced. The chances of this occurring organically just felt astronomically low. And again, the actions of Redd at the very end, when he goes off BY HIMSELF.... again. Ugh.

So, my thoughts are kind of all over the place. I did enjoy the first book. I still feel like the character of Matthew Redd has a lot of potential but at this point, there needs to be a lot of self-reflection, or maybe self-awareness is a better term, on his part about his behavior because if nothing changes, he is going to end up getting his friends and teammates killed.