The Last Act by Brad Parks – a Review

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Description:
Struggling stage actor Tommy Jump knows he has to stop chasing applause and start chasing greenbacks. But then he’s offered the role of a lifetime: $150,000 for a six-month acting gig. With a newly pregnant fiancee depending on him, it’s an opportunity he can’t refuse, even though the offer comes from the strangest employer imaginable: the FBI.

The feds won a small victory when they arrested Mitchell Dupree, a banker who has spent the past four years laundering money for New Colima, one of the deadliest cartels in Mexico and a major supplier of crystal meth in the US. But Dupree has documents that could lead to arrests of high-ranking members of New Colima, including their fearsome leader, El Vio . . . if only he’d tell the FBI where they are.

Using a false name and backstory, Tommy will enter Dupree’s low-security prison as a felon and get close to the banker in the hopes that he’ll reveal the documents’ whereabouts. But when Tommy arrives, he quickly realizes that he’s underestimated the enormity of his task and the terrifying reach of the cartel. Because the FBI isn’t the only one looking for the documents, and if Tommy doesn’t play his role to perfection, it just may be his last act.

Review:

The Last Act by Brad Parks is a standalone novel, and my first book by Brad Parks.  This was an excellent suspense thriller that kept me reading from start to finish. 

Tommy Jump is an actor, who loves his job, but with his fiancée pregnant, he knows he has to get a regular job to make ends meet.  Feeling down after performing his last  show, Tommy runs into an old friend.  His friend is now an FBI agent, and offers Tommy a 6 month job that will make him more than $150.000.  All Tommy has to do is take on a fake persona, go to jail and make friends with a banker, who is hiding documents that will incriminate a Mexican drug cartel boss.  Needless to say, Tommy accepts the job and prepares himself and his fiancée for the 6 month acting gig.

When Tommy enters the jail, he makes sure to make friends, getting himself closer to the banker.  He also gets his FBI friends to give him contraband from the outside to use to bribe prison mates in helping him get what he needs. 

What follows is an interesting, as well as suspenseful story that is told in multiple pov’s (Tommy, his fiancée, the drug lord, and assistant to the drug lord).  While Tommy is working to discovering where the documents are, we get glimpses how dangerous and evil the drug boss is, as he thinks nothing of killing anyone on the spot.  We also get a close up of the assistant, who is determined to find the documents, before his boss kills him.   It is a very exciting story line, and very well written by Parks. 

The Last Act is fast paced, suspenseful, and intense; which keeps us glued to the book until the very end.  I do not want to give too much information, as there are so many twists and surprises all through the book.  Tommy was a great character, who evolves as the story continues; especially with the many twists along the way that change everything. The Last Act was a gripping story that was so well written by Parks.  If you enjoy suspense thrillers, I suggest you read this book.

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Publisher