Lendle

Mike Pettit's writing has been compared to Robert Ludlum and Frederick Forsyth with a dash of Harold Robbins and a pinch of Ian Fleming. HONORABLE REVENGE... This is a story of crime and the men that commit crime. The degree of criminality of a crime is determined by the person who commits it. There is murder, an offense so abhorrent to men that it requires the ultimate penalty, a life for a life. There are crimes of passion, of greed, insanity, recklessness, planned, and crimes of opportunity. Crime has no boundaries or rules, no age restrictions or ethnicity, no language barriers nor morality. It is said that there are no new crimes, just new ways to commit them. This is true in today’s world of technology. Millions of dollars can disappear from one place and a nano-second later reappear on the other side of the world. A man’s life can be changed forever with one stroke of a key, his identification stolen or changed. A human organ can be bought, sold, and shipped to anywhere in the world, the same for a human being. No, there are no new crimes, just different ways to commit them. In this story I have committed every type of crime by every type of criminal that I could plot. The subplots weave in and out of the main story like an artisan’s loom creating a priceless garment. Honorable Revenge pits good against evil, light fighting dark, dark winning at times. For isn’t that the reality of life? We each have an element of criminal in us. Some can control the dark urges, others cannot. Who determines where honor lies? Is it the criminal code of honor, or the code of the evangelist? Who decides what is a crime and what punishment is to be meted out? In a world where the powerful make the rules, they also set the punishment. What chance does an honest man have, unless he himself becomes evil?When John Locke sees danger screaming down on him like a banshee from hell: He not only grabs on and comes out shooting; he’s caught on an adrenaline ride that doesn’t stop until he is the last man standing. Locke’s world is filled with cruel and ruthless men that will kill and steal just for the rush it brings them: Dark places that normal people never go unless they are dragged in screaming, and never come out. Drug Cartel’s, that mutilate, then fast-freeze their competitors; secret Chinese Triads that think crime and business are one in the same, and murder is used to close a deal. Street Mutts caught unaware of the treachery going down around them, only to be cut down in the running gun battle that surrounds them. John Locke spends his days in L.A., working the courthouse hallways and holding-cells, trying to catch a few clients that need to lawyer-up. His ten years inside a bottle left him with a marriage he vaguely remembers, a promising legal career in the sewer, and the fear that life is passing him by. He’s barely back among the human race, living in a three room apartment over a Chinese Take-out, chasing bottom-feeder cases to keep him in the legal game, and brings in a few extra bucks doing part-time work as a sleuth and muscle for a bail bond friend. He makes his rent, pays his bills and keeps looking for a way out.When John’s way out comes, it’s from a darkened window overlooking the alley that runs behind his apartment. Locke witnesses a murder that sucks him into black evil places where a man’s soul is sold for a kilo of cocaine. He’s caught in a diabolical criminal plot by the Chinese Triads to corner the world’s diamond market, and trips up a double cross that brings down a billion dollar Mexican drug cartel. To survive, he makes a harrowing escape in the night piling up dead men, splashing blood trails through the streets of China Town and back alleys of L.A.’s underbelly. When the cordite stink from the gunfire clears, John walks away with a lot more than a brand on his back and a bullet in his side: He’s found that honor and revenge are the same; enemies in life, brothers in death.