Knighthawke
by Jerry Minchew
Publish America
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Reviewed by Linda Lee
Michael Walker is kidnapped as a baby by a couple who were transient bank robbers. His imposter mother is killed as she and her husband rob a bank several states away from where he was taken. Her husband leaves the area to avoid capture and the friends they made raise the little boy. Michael only learns much later in life that the woman killed in the bank couldn't have been his mother.
As an adult he joins the Air Force, but continues the hunt for his real parents. An accident with a satellite causes an unknown organism to infiltrate his bloodstream, giving him super-human abilities, starting with the body healing itself so quickly after the accident that almost killed him. With his enhanced ability to see, hear, run and jump, the Pentagon gives him a top-secret classification during the Vietnam War. During all the excitement of avoiding being captured by the Soviets for study and being used as a secret weapon by his own country, Michael's main goal remains to find his true identity.
The author certainly has all the writing issues down pat. There's a good story in the book, maybe more than one. Dialogue is a bit stilted with everyone sounding the same, and the story seems to get bogged down in the middle, but overall you end up rooting for the hero, and this guy is a true hero, in the end.
Looking for a sci-fi read, I was a bit disappointed the action doesn't start until somewhere past the halfway mark in the book.
Armchair Interviews says: The story gets your heart pumping about halfway in, and that makes it a satisfying read.