Gallows Pole by J.D. Rhoades

Someone is killing entire families, forcing fathers to hang their wives and children before taking their own lives. How does the killer do it? And what is the meaning of the small iron horse the killer leaves at every murder scene? FBI agent Melissa Saxon and her handpicked team are racing against time to solve the mystery before more families die.

Former anti-terrorist operative Colonel Mark Bishop and the survivors of his command think they know. One of their own, a stone killer who calls himself the Hangman, has come out to play, and he’s trying to draw out not only Bishop, but his former comrades—the elite team known as Iron Horse.

Only the Horsemen can stop one of their own. But the team is disbanded, the survivors scattered. Bishop himself is tormented by guilt for the things he had to do to keep one of his men from suffering an agonizing death. Their adversary is not only a skilled assassin, but a master at creating fear. Behind the scenes, shadowy and powerful figures pursue their own plans for Bishop and the Hangman.

Mark Bishop, Melissa Saxon, and the last of the Iron Horsemen will have to use all their courage and every resource, including an array of high-tech weapons, to stop the Hangman. What they have to do will put everything they ever believed in to the ultimate test and push Bishop to the edge of sanity.

GALLOWS POLE is available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

*****

“Rhoades’ singular ability to make every character—even peripheral ones—unique, realistic and intriguing; his innate sense of narrative tempo, which is pedal-to-the-metal throughout thanks in no small part to a staccato writing style and succinct chapters all ending with cliffhangers of varying degrees; and, lastly, the author’s over-the-top, pulp fiction-inspired audaciousness, which will have readers saying to themselves, “I can’t believe that just happened….” Paul Allen, the Chicago Tribune

*****

J.D. Rhoades has worked as a radio news reporter, club DJ, television cameraman, ad salesman, waiter, trial attorney, and award-winning newspaper columnist. The Chicago Tribune called his book Breaking Cover “the perfectly crafted hard-edged thriller.”

J.D. is also the author of three novels featuring bounty hunter Jack Keller: The Shamus Award-nominated The Devil’s Right Hand; Good Day in Hell; and Safe and Sound. His recent e-books are Storm Surge; Lawyers, Guns & Money; and the e-short The Caretaker.
J.D. lives, writes, and practices law in Carthage, North Carolina.