JESSE MCDERMITT

Jesse McDermitt is a charter boat captain.

That is his day job and he really enjoys it because he loves the ocean, loves fishing, and loves his boat. The people he contracts with sometimes are okay and he is friendly enough with them but it is being on his boat on the ocean fishing that he cares most about.

Until someone starts to cause trouble or push him around or bother his friends or generally become a jerk in his presence. Then he is prone to make his feelings known and few people get by unscathed not paying attention to this man who, though starting to age, can more than hold his own.

McDermitt was for 20 years of his adult life a Marine, a member of the prestigious Force Recon and an exceptionally gifted sniper. A couple of his exploits in his career are still talked about in sniper training though you would be hard pressed to get him to talk about them. He did what he needed to do and a couple of very bad people stopped doing what they were doing.

McDermitt is in his mid-40s at the start of the series. He mentions being 44 in one of the early books and he also mentions that he has been out of the Marines for 7 years which let us know, since he served 20 years, he joined the Corps when he was 17 or 18. Before he became a jar-head, he was raised by his grandparents after the deaths of his parents when he was near 10. We also learn that he has been married twice before with the second one resulting in two daughters that his ex did not let him see or have anything to do with (this will change over time).

Jesse McDermitt gets involved with the Department of Homeland Security in the second book when the son of one of his oldest friends comes to call wanting help spreading his father's ashed out at sea. That son, nicknamed Deuce, was a Seal recently moved to DHS. It occurs to Deuce that having someone like McDermitt available to haul agents where needed in the Caribbean under the cover of a fishing outing was a great idea. McDermitt is quite a bit less than interested but life has a way of forcing things on a man and that happens to McDermitt.

McDermitt owns a very small island in the Content Keys of southern Florida and he uses that place as a training and staging area for his new part-time gig as DHS transporter and sometimes fellow operative. When you have been in action as much as McDermitt has over the years, just driving men to a fight and standing by is going to happen. It is not happening a fair amount with McDermitt.

I was hooked almost immediately on the Jesse McDermitt stories.

That was mentioned right up front so any criticism I make is done with that disclaimer out there. I really liked the McDermitt tales.

With a smile, I tell you the one thing that surprised me about my liking the adventures. I do not care for minutia. I have no interest, personally, in whether a guy is using the H&K R34 (if such a thing exists) as opposed to the R33. Neither would be known to me and neither would make any difference. The guy had a gun. All I need to know!

So when the narrative in the McDermitt talks about the many small trips he makes to and from his island, which turn he makes when and how fast he was going and so on and so forth, I expected to speed read through that really fast. Not interested! Except I was hooked.

Now, I was in the Navy for 12 years but know virtually nothing about small craft (well, nowadays virtually nothing about larger ones, either). So I would have no way of knowing if the author was telling me something straight or making it totally up. Except I am certain he is factual and I am certain I want to know more. How could I, who does not care about the tiny details, be so mesmerized about his details? Beats me. Just am.

There are a fair number of happenings in the books that I should probably not buy or at least force my suspension of disbelief into high gear. I just do not care. I enjoy the heck out of the stories and want more.

Hopefully, there will be a lot more on the way.