About This Book
This collection of Quaid Hudson stories includes books 4, 5, 6 and 7 in the series. Each book can be read as a separate story, without need to read the prequels. However, readers may find better purchase value plus extended reading pleasure in having the stories bundled together. The Quaid Hudson story is told as a gritty, fast-paced modern American thriller that plays out in the isolated desert lands and off the grid rural homesteads of the southwest United States. Quaid Hudson leaves home as an escape from his earlier brush with a drug cartel and from the complications of his relationships with women. Book 4 picks up with Quaid's arrival in rural New Mexico, in the little town of Chloride. What appears to be a peaceful place is actually a hotbed of criminal and sexual intrigue. He attempts to keep his head down, but soon embarks on a liaison with an older woman. Quaid is finally lured back to Texas by ex-girlfriend Brittany and the young couple settle on a ranch. Quaid destroys his chances for domestic bliss, by allowing him self to be drawn into local Native American politics, headed up by an attractive young Apache woman. Following his separation from his fiance', Quaid ends up drifting the back roads of America, entering a dark period in his life. He returns to his old family home, to find it now rented out to criminal elements intent on stripping the surrounding desert of the hallucinogenic peyote plant. Quaid is determined to reclaim the house and ranch, but events spiral out of his control, taking him to a dark confrontation with his unresolved past and to a fatal convergence of conflicting interests. Once again running from events beyond his control, Quaid "borrows" a pickup truck and sets off on a road trip, during which he picks up a young hitchhiker, Bernice. The two are from very different backgrounds, but more alike than either cares to admit. The road trip takes them into Texas hill country where Bernice pulls one of her hustles, putting both Quaid and herself in mortal danger. Quaid should have ditched her right there and then. The relationship between these two would not survive logical scrutiny; being complicated, tumultuous, not built on trust and potentially destructive. His decision to stick with his feisty fellow traveller puts them both on the run. For Bernice this is just one more small-time crime. For Quaid, all he needs run from are the demons in his head. However, Quaid has now developed a certain cynical pragmatism that enables him to come to terms with Bernice's past and her proclivity for small-time crime. He eventually finds some redemption and moral purpose from an unlikely source and in an unlikely place.
