Category: Sean Black

Gridlock by Sean Black (Ryan Lock and Ty Johnson #3)

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Adult movie actress Raven Lane is one of the most lusted after women in America, with millions of fans to prove it. But when a headless corpse turns up in the trunk of her car, she realizes that fame carries a terrible price.
Fearing for her life, and with the LAPD seemingly unable to protect her, Raven turns to former military bodyguard Ryan Lock for help. As events spiral out of control, Lock is drawn into a dangerous world where money rules, sex is a commodity to be bought and sold, and no one can be trusted, least of all his beautiful new client…
My Rating: 5/5

Kat’s Review: I read Sean Blacks first and second books and absolutely loved them. Ryan Lock is an ex-military bodyguard who has worked private security and has now set up his own company that can be called upon for any type of job. He has a partner Ty Johnson who is an ex-marine who Ryan met whilst in Iraq. Together they make a formidable team and seem unafraid to take on any type of work.

In this book, Ryan and Ty are asked to work for famous adult movie actress Raven Lane. Raven is lusted after by many people across the world and has an army of fans, however, when a headless corpse turns up in the boot of her car she feels compelled to get Ryan and Ty in for her private security. Before long what seems like a simple stalking case gone wrong, turns into a horrific crime spree by what looks like a cold blooded killer.

Sean Black is now on his third book and you can tell that he is pushing himself and the book came across even better than his first two. The book is very fast paced, and this is a lot easier to read as things start off relatively simple but before long the pace picks up and you are thrown along with the characters as things progressively get worse.

The one major difference between this book and his previous is that the murders and crime scenes are a lot more graphic and descriptive. In my opinion this made the book a lot better because you then start questioning who is on the right side of the law and who isn’t. There are quite a lot of twists and turns too and I must say that I was shocked and saddened by the ending. Although shocked, it is an absolutely first class platform for the next book which I cannot wait to get my hands on. Sean Black is certainly coming into his own in this genre and I think this is his best yet, I can only hope that they continue to be this good.

Deadlock by Sean Black (Ryan Lock and Ty Johnson #2)

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My Review 4/5

Sean Black released his debut novel Lockdown in June of 2010 as this was the beginning of a series featuring Ryan Lock. His follow up book Dead Lock was released a month later.

I read Sean Blacks first book and absolutely loved it. Ryan Lock is an ex-military bodyguard who has worked private security and has now set up his own company that can be called upon for any type of job. He has a partner Ty Johnson who is an ex-marine who Ryan met whilst in Iraq. Together they make a formidable team and seem unafraid to take on any type of work.

Their latest task at first seems to be quite straightforward. All they have to do is keep a prisoner by the name of Frank `Reaper’ Hays alive for a week. He is a very important witness for the states prosecution against the white supremacist gang the `Aryan Brotherhood’. What they soon realise is that the job is a little more difficult than they first realised. Frank Hays is a prisoner inside Pelican Bay Super Max prison. For them to protect him, they need to do it from the inside.

They enter Pelican Bay as supposed convicted felons that have been sentenced to twenty years. The only people that are aware of the truth are the FBI and the prison warden, or at least that’s what they hope.

The Aryan Brotherhood is responsible for the killing of an undercover FBI agent and his family and the FBI are determined to see the group brought to justice. However, Hays is not a willing participant when he realises Ryan Lock has been assigned as his cell buddy and protector. It is soon very clear to both Ty and Ryan that looking after the prisoner was not their main problem in prison, it was staying alive themselves.

The story itself was great as was the pace of the book. I loved the fact that we are now in the midst of a character series where the reader waits to find out what happens to the characters. However, as much as I enjoyed the book I only found myself grappling with one element. The character Chance is a woman that is involved in the plot and is very much on the side of the Aryan Brotherhood. I have no issues with the fact that this woman was running around killing people but the fact that she was heavily pregnant while doing it smacked of a certain `disbelief’ element. Aside from that, the rest of the book was as good if not better than his debut.

The characters Ryan and Ty are explored a little more although I am looking forward to finding out a bit more about both of them in the next instalment. The end of the book wasn’t bad at all and the prison element of the story was first class. It shocked me to read at the end of the book that the author had actually `done time’ at Pelican Bay in the course of his research. Not only is he a brave man, but an incredibly clever one. The scenes in the prison were written by somebody that `really knew’ what it was like to be inside those walls. Overall a fantastic read that has made me look forward to his next book.

Lock Down by Sean Black (Ryan Lock and Ty Johnson #1)

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Synopsis: It may be Christmas Eve in New York, but for ex-military bodyguard Ryan Lock it’s business as usual. His task: to protect the CEO of the world’s largest bio-technology company from a group of radical, and highly determined, activists.

But when a failed assassination attempt leaves the streets of midtown littered with bodies, and hours later the son of the company’s chief research scientist is abducted from his Upper West Side prep school, Lock’s hunt for the boy turns into an explosive game of cat and mouse.
Kat’s Rating: 4/5

Kat’s Review: Well I am a fan of this type of book anyway and wondered whether this would be up to scratch. There is so much competition out there that it is hard to grab the readers attention but can honestly say that Sean Black certainly grabbed mine. This is the first novel with the lead character of Ryan Lock. Lock is an ex-soldier who now works for a Pharmaceuticals company. He runs the operations team there as an elite bodyguard. Things turn sour when an animal protest march goes wrong and Lock is working against the clock to find the people responsible. With his good friend and partner Ty, they hunt down one of the worlds most feared and dangerous women. The story runs smoothly from start to finish and is a real page turner. I loved the style of writing and the book kept me gripped from start to finish. We also meet Locks love interest in this book as well as his partner Ty and I can only hope that they all appear in his next book. I thought only Jack Reacher and Alex Cross were my favourite characters but I can now add Ryan Lock to that list!