When a motorcycle enthusiast, conspiracy theorist, military history buff pens a novel about a motorcycle club, the Vietnam War, and layer upon layer of corruption, secrets, and mayhem, it’s bound to be good. And when the author knows every nook and cranny of Southwest Virginia and sets much of his novel in Southwest Virginia, it’s too fun to pass up, especially for us Roanokers.
First-time novelist and hometown son Shields Jarrett published “Still Fighting” in 2013, the first installment in a trilogy of thrillers that unravels a web of deceit that stretches to the highest levels. It’s a split story from the beginning, but Jarrett pulls it together seamlessly in two distinct parts.
In Part 1 of the book, Tommy Wright, an imprisoned ex-DEA agent who at one time successfully infiltrated the feared Havoc Rider motorcycle club, is fighting for his life, and Maggie McDonald, a 27-year-old medical intern, orphan, and granddaughter of an ocean salvage company owner, is running for hers.
Special Ops team RT Montana completes a secret mission under heavy fire in 1968 Cambodia to recover a mysterious briefcase full of top-secret material, and the holder of the briefcase buries the truth and transforms himself into a popular and respected Harvard professor. In alternating chapters, Jarrett fills us in on the back story of Tommy, the current predicament of Maggie, and exactly what went down on the bogus “Study and Observation” mission in Vietnam all those years ago.
Part 2 of the book opens with Maggie seeking sanctuary from one of her grandfather Hank’s oldest friends, Tom Wright. Inexplicably, Maggie is being chased by two men who are trying to kill her, Hank’s salvage ship has been missing for weeks, and she has nowhere else to turn. At a cabin in Paint Bank she finds Tom’s son, Tommy, but discovers that Tom died a suspicious death in Nova Scotia three weeks before. Tommy is now out of prison, living in the cabin, and planning his dad’s funeral.
When friends of Tommy’s dad’s start showing up at the cabin for the funeral, the story lines finally converge, and all hell breaks loose. We discover in quick succession the true identities of the men who led the special ops team in Vietnam, and that all members of RT Montana had either been murdered shortly after their mission or had changed their identities after disappearing and having themselves declared killed in action. During a random theft over 40 years later, the briefcase is stolen from the professor’s home safe, and its sale tips off the bad guy – now a US senator – that his past is at risk of exposure. Someone from RT Montana is still alive.
Throughout the book, many good people die over the contents of that briefcase, and once it resurfaces, everyone connected to it is in danger. It’s time for the war heroes to come clean and to prepare for the firefight that’s been 40 years in the making. Over the senator’s dead body are any of those guys getting out of this alive.
Author Shields Jarrett is a porch sitter if there ever was one, and reading his book is like listening to him spin a particularly colorful yarn. “Still Fighting” is exciting and satisfying, full of twists and turns and an abundance of intrigue. It’s a powerful addition to the growing collection of novels by local authors.
You can purchase “Still Fighting” from Amazon at www.amazon.com, or buy a signed copy from the author himself by emailing Jarrett at [email protected].
by Regina Carson
