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    This Gun for Hire
    This Gun for Hire
    This Gun for Hire
    Audiobook11 hours

    This Gun for Hire

    Written by Jo Goodman

    Narrated by Tom Zingarelli

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Former cavalryman Quill McKenna takes pride in protecting the most powerful man in Stonechurch, Colorado: Mr. Ramsey Stonechurch himself. But the mine owner has enemies, and after several threats on his life, mines, and family, Quill decides to hire someone to help guard the boss's daughter. Only problem is the uncontrollable attraction he feels toward the fiery-haired woman who takes the job.

    Calico Nash has more knowledge of scouting and shooting than cross-stitching, but she agrees to pose as Ann's private tutor while protecting her. But between her growing attraction to Quill and the escalating threats against the Stonechurches, Calico will soon have a choice to make-hang on to her hard-won independence or put her faith in Quill to create the kind of happy ending she never imagined . . .
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateApr 7, 2015
    ISBN9781494580247
    This Gun for Hire
    Author

    Jo Goodman

    Jo Goodman is a licensed professional counselor working with children and families in West Virginia’s Northern Panhandle. Always a fan of the happily ever after, Jo turned to writing romances early in her career as a child care worker when she realized the only life script she could control was the one she wrote herself. She is inspired by the resiliency and courage of the children she meets and feels privileged to be trusted with their stories, the ones that they alone have the right to tell. Once upon a time, Jo believed she was going to be a marine biologist. She knows she is lucky that seasickness made her change course. She lives with her family in Colliers, West Virginia. Please visit her website at www.jogoodman.com

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    Reviews for This Gun for Hire

    4/5

    18 ratings4 reviews

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    • 3/5
      I enjoyed this book by Graham Greene but it needs a rewrite. I found myself editing some badly constructed sentences, and the plot is ridiculous. Furthermore, events in this pre WW2 story are linked by coincidence after coincidence. The redeeming quality is the familiar narrative voice of Graham Greene, both comforting and compelling. I confess to an enthusiastic read, from first lines to a somewhat rambling conclusion, but I can give it only three stars.
    • 1/5
      Pre-WWII melodrama--too many vignettes of side characters, too much soul-searching
    • 4/5
      This Gun for Hire, written in 1936, is a cross between an Eric Ambler thriller and a noir novel, but Graham Greene’s story is more unpredictable than typical noir and more visceral than typical Ambler. It concerns Raven, a harelipped killer who discovers he has been double-crossed and sets out to take revenge on the man responsible, who has been his contact, and the ultimate boss, whom he doesn’t know. In the background is the threat of war, caused by the assassination Raven has just carried out on the European mainland before fleeing back to Britain for his payoff. Unfortunately, the payoff is in the form of marked, stolen money that the police are searching for.There is a lot of good action here and Greene is a good stylist. The problem, however, as I read the book, was that the behavior of the characters seemed less and less human. Especially puzzling is the behavior of the second most important character in the story, Anne, who becomes tangled up in Raven’s plot. By one of those amazing coincidences endemic to this type of story, she is also the girlfriend of the Scotland Yard detective assigned to track down Raven for the theft. An actress, she seems to treat the whole thing as some sort of part, even though her life is clearly in danger. Most of her actions are pretty inexplicable. The bizarre plot twists involved with her predicament propel the story forward, but also lend it an air of unreality. Also more than a bit unreal is the detective’s suspicion that Anne may actually be Raven’s confederate and his attitude to her as a result—despite the fact that he was planning to marry her. Then there is the dying millionaire war profiteer, a larcenous landlady, the vice mayor’s wife and her dog, a despicable medical student…. You get the idea.The book is full of set pieces—extended, barely related incidents involving minor characters—that seem to exist for no other reason than that Greene had a few things he felt like writing about. My real criticism, however, is that Greene doesn’t really seem to care about any of his characters all that much, and as a result, reading This Gun for Hire, despite its slick surface, didn’t strike me as the classic I had been led to believe it was. Raven is, in fact, the most sympathetic character, despite being a cold blooded killer. Even here, though, Greene can’t let well enough alone. Raven is a killer, you see, because his family was too poor to pay for surgery to have his lip fixed, which meant he was persecuted all his life, and after his father, a criminal, was hanged, and his mother committed suicide, he was raised in a cruel school where he was mistreated every day! It’s all too much. Were Greene a real noir writer, he would know that in noir, less equals more.
    • 5/5
      Quill McKenna is the bodyguard for a wealthy mine owner, but he needs help for the man's daughter. When he runs into Calico Nash (in a very funny scene), he knows she's the woman for the job. This is a richly detailed story of the old West, especially pertaining to mining and a good mystery at the same time. The romance between Quill and Calico is entertaining too. Ms. Goodman knows how to write historical romances, and I'm thoroughly enjoying my romp through her back catalog.