New from Down & Out Books: BEFORE THE RAIN by Jack Getze

TAMPA, Fla. - March 18, 2024 - PRLog -- Down & Out Books is pleased to announce that BEFORE THE RAIN, the first Hicks and Hauser Crime Thriller by Jack Getze, has been published on March 18, 2024 in trade paperback and ebook formats.

About BEFORE THE RAIN …

A Special Operations "fixer" for Homeland Security, U.S. Marine General Ray Hauser, teams up with Air Force Special Agent Sunny Hicks to recover a stolen GAU-8, the Gatling-gun like nose cannon of the military's most destructive gunship, the A-10 Warthog. The weapon fires three thousand rounds a minute, each round's explosive power equal to a stick of dynamite. Attached to a flatbed trailer, parked near Los Angeles traffic at rush hour, three thousand people could die within police response time.

Ray has another, more personal incentive to find those who stole the horrific weapon. His wife, Alissa, went missing years ago investigating a similar theft inside the same Arizona desert. If he can solve the GAU-8 case, there's a chance he can discover what happened to his presumably dead wife, even catch her killers.

But that stolen Gatling-gun-like cannon also holds special attraction for Jessie Maris, unhappy wife of the weapon's chief thief, Nolan Maris, a career criminal who plans to sell the GAU-8 for half a million. Jessie has been abused all her life, especially by the judge in a Family Court case many years ago. When her husband Nolan keeps her in the dark about his plans, then physically beats her, Jessie goes on a rampage that leads her and the GAU-8 to an old abuser and a crowd of innocents.

Can Hicks and Hauser stop her? U.S. Special Operations never dealt with a battered, over-the-edge woman like Jessie before.

Meet the author …

JACK GETZE is the author of the award-winning, darkly comic Austin Carr Mystery Series, plus a stand-alone thriller, all from Down & Out Books. A retired former newsman, public relations consultant, and telephone-based, municipal bond salesman, Getze understands communications and works hard to make reading easy. The most recent of his Austin Carr novels, Big Shoes, won Deadly Ink's Best Mystery Novel of 2015.

In its thirteenth year as an independent publisher of award-winning literary and crime fiction, Down & Out Books (https://downandoutbooks.com) is based in Tampa, Florida. For more information about the book, to request a review copy of the book, or to inquire about an interview with the author, contact info@downandoutbooks.com.