The second book in the kidnapper rescue specialist, Jonathan Grave series. Two 13-year olds are kidnapped from a school for kids with jailed parents, sponsored by Grave. He and Boxer, along with their new colleague, ex-Sheriff Gail Bonneville are pissed off. A local hermit saves one of the boys and then they set off to unravel the reason for the kidnapping, which goes high into the US government. Gilstrap's high octane stuff culminates with a daring attack on a cocaine manufacturing plant in Colombia. ( )

After reading No Mercy I looked forward to reading Hostage Zero. It did not let me down. I like the cast of characters that John Gilstrap has assembled. Jonathan Grave is someone you want to know better, and Boxer is someone you want on your side. I hope this series continues.

Hostage rescue expert Jonathan Grave is used to going where even the government won't. An innocent man has been shot and two young people are missing. But tracking them down is just the beginning.
Jonathan must plunge into the heart of an ugly secret whose insidious path reaches into the highest corridors of power and he must defeat enemies who are willing to kill again and again to keep the truth from being revealed. ( )

Armed men enter The Resurrection House, a home for children of parents who are in jail, the men kidnap two teenage boys.

Later, one of the boys is found in a field by a homeless former Marine medic. When the kidnappers return for this boy, they are about to kill the homeless man when Jonathan "Digger" Grave steps in, shoots the kidnappers and rescues the child.

Brandy Giddings is a special assistant to Secretary of Defense, Jacque Ledger. She conspires with him to set a plan in motion to make an old campaign problem go away. The men they hire don't have any problem with killing and kidnapping, as long as the price is right.

When Jonathan discovers that there is some government connection to the kidnapping, he figures it is either to gain silence or to coerce some cooperation. He intends to find out and rescue the other boy.

In a complicated plot that is most visual, we follow the remaining kidnappers as they take the second boy to a drug factory in the mountains of Columbia. Most of the workers in the factory are forced to remain there, many have been kidnapped from local villages.

The author, John Gilstrap, has surged to the front of action writers. This story would easily fit on the movie screen as we follow the rescue team face tremendous odds to stop the criminals and rescue the young boy.

I enjoyed this novel but did have to suspend my view of reality and sense of when a coincidence is too unlikely. Jonathan Grave is one of the new breed of action heroes that are easy to like and root for their success. ( )

I did not find this book as well developed, either in plot or characters, as Mr. Gilstrap's first Jonathan Graves book (which I loved). It was more slow moving and shallow, although the action definitely got faster at the end. In spite of the let down, I look forward to seeing Digger and his friends in the next volume due out this year. ( )

Great characters/great story! Jonathan Grave and Boxers are characters in line with Joe Pike and Mitch Rapp. ( )