In Danger of Judgment - Book Review

David Rabin's novel, In Danger of Judgment, is a thriller about how past events can rear their ugliness and spill into the future. In the prologue of the novel, Rabin gives an abbreviated backstory of what happened when a team of eight Special Op soldiers who were ordered to clandestinely enter North Vietnam to kill NVA soldiers ended up in a one-sided firefight. The rules of engagement during the Vietnam War forbid entering North Vietnam in pursuit of the enemy, so their operation was totally kept secret from the American public. The goal of these secret missions was to kill as many North Vietnamese Army soldiers as possible. At first, these operations were going well, but then the team's luck changed. Something had gone very wrong, and quickly, it was determined it was the result of an officer in charge going rogue. But why would he sell out his own men to the enemy? One of the operation’s members is not forgiving and swears to find and kill the man responsible for the deadly betrayal.

The story picks up in chapter one in the Windy City of Chicago as two detectives, Marcelle DeSantis and Bernie Bernardelli, are tasked with their own mission of trying to put out of business a drug ring that is responsible for a slew of drug-related killings. Two drug gangs are fighting to control the heroin trade in the Chicago area. A man named Robert Thornton looks to be the head of the new group trying to take over the drug trade. The detectives see Thornton has a dark background, but they really know little about him. An IRS Special Agent named John Shepard from the Narcotics-Related Financial Crimes unit joins their investigation.

About 600 miles away in Arlington, Virginia, Major General Henry Sampson, who had been counting down the days to retirement, has his life turned upside down when he receives a threatening call from an old adversary. Will this call scuttle his career and retirement?

And then there is another interesting character, a hit man who, to his neighbors, is a nice middle-aged man who is lucky to have an inheritance that supports him. So who would suspect it is blood money that really pays the bills?

There are some interesting discussions about the psychological process used by the government to determine if a candidate for these covert operations can serve as a stone-cold killer. Rabin's tense and secret-filled story whisks the reader away in a gripping, layered mystery. Rabin displays a brilliant ability to orchestrate a large cast of characters with varying agendas; readers will find themselves moving between the early days in Vietnam and the police investigation of the Chicago heroin problem. Clever shifts in time and perspective keep readers on their toes, and a surprising and highly satisfying conclusion ties the story together. David Rabin's novel, In Danger of Judgment, looks like another winning novel for Black Rose Writing.