The Blackjack Conspiracy (Department Thirty)

This is another great book in the Department Thirty string of novels. Mr. Kent is a strong story-teller who manages to make Oklahoma's history an culture come to life in his colorful settings. I have read all trhee of his novels now, and can't wait to read the next. I just wish I could pace myself to take less than one day to read them! If you like thrillers with a tingling twist, David Kent and The Department Thirty novels are a good bet.

In Oklahoma, the police arrest Alex Bridge charging her with embezzling just under five-hundred million dollars from her employer, Cross Current Media. Not long afterward FBI Agent Wells, who was looking into the Bridge affair, is murdered. The evidence once again overwhelmingly points at Alex as the culprit. The Department of the Thirty knows that the obvious is often too simple as the powerful will abuse their muscle to blame a lesser person for their crimes. Two major incidents including murder seems out of place for the profile they have drawn of Alex, a recent widow expecting a child soon. Former Deputy US Marshal Faith Kelly is assigned to protect Alex if she will testify about what she knows about her former boss' financial shenanigans. However, no Department Thirty Agent, used to the improbable as being genuine, were prepared for a conspiracy that ties into the 1893 murder of the Great Comanche Chief Tabananika at Anadarko in the Oklahoma Territory and the present most powerful people in DC. Obviously conspiracy buffs will go wild over THE BLACK JACK CONSPIRACY and its predecessor DEPARTMENT THIRTY, but so will anyone who appreciates a strong thriller. The story one is action-packed, but the two key women make the improbability seem genuine. The audience will feel for the beleaguered seemingly guilty Alex who not long before the embezzlement accusation was deserted by her spouse and soon after that learned he was killed in St. Louis. Faith, who co-starred in the previous novel, is the heroine who unravels the spool to find the two impossibly connected end points of the thread. David Kent writes a fine tale that grips audience from start to finish. Harriet Klausner