Burn The Night by Mike Donohue Book Review

 

Image provided by Mr. D. 

I had the opportunity to do an early read and proof for Mr. Donohue. Publishing March 16, 2021.

Max finds himself in Philly, working as a driver for Liam’s car service, PPCS. As a night driver, Max runs across all sorts of characters, from drunk college girls, the occasional uptight businessman, or brides in bloody wedding dresses. One such passenger dropped a box in the back of his Town Car. Max, as you may recall, is also running from some seriously bad dudes and is still trying to fly under the radar, make things right in his life. The box is the property of Adelita, Max finds out later, and Adelita is looking for her sister, Soledad. There is also the underlying story of a re-election campaign going on. Javon, a young gym rat Max has seen at Ronnie’s gym, is also kidnapped in this tale and, naturally, Max wants to help. 

Mr. Donohue just keeps throwing out the twists as this story unfolds. Mr. Donohue is also quite masterful in how he uses imagery to pull the reader in. I am quite certain that you will enjoy his work as much as I do.

This is book #5 in Mr. Donohue’s Max Strong series. The order of his books: Shaking the Tree, Bottom of the World, Hollow City, Trouble Will Find Me, Burn the Night. Prequels: Sleeping Dogs and The Devil’s Angel. Short story collection: October Days.

While each of these books can be read as standalones, I encourage you to read them in order to really get a sense of Max and his friends.

SIDE NOTE: I don’t really like to compare one author to another, but I feel it is justified in this case. Mr. Donohue’s character, Max, reminds me a lot of Mr. Child’s character, Reacher. Both of these men are wanderers, finding themselves in one town or another. Both characters do odd jobs for a few extra dollars, not really concerned with the money, rather the cover it provides. Both seem to end up in positions where they are left with the choice of helping someone they feel is in distress or walking away. Both choose to help. Max and Reacher both seem to have inner demons, good versus evil, erring on the side of good. All these traits make both of these characters quite relatable.