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Jim Heskett was born in the wilds of Oklahoma, raised by a pack of wolves with a station wagon and a membership card to the local public swimming pool. Just like the man in the John Denver song, he moved to Colorado in the summer of his 27th year and never looked back.
He fell in love with writing at the age of fourteen with a copy of Stephen King's The Shining. Poetry became his first outlet for teen angst, then later some screenplays, and eventually, short fiction, long fiction, and he also writes in the video game industry. In between, he worked a few careers that never successfully tickled his creative toes, and hasn't ever forgotten about Stephen King. You can find him huddled over a laptop at an undisclosed location in Colorado, dreaming up ways to kill beloved characters.
Reviewed by Michelle Randall for Readers' Favorite
For most of his life, Micah Reed has been a screw-up, drinking his way through life, but the trouble he finds himself in this night has nothing to do with him, really, but unfortunately the big bad drug dealer isn't willing to believe him. Micah is able to escape and finds himself needing to get out of town for a while. Although visiting his sister is forbidden, that's exactly what he does, which turns out to be a good thing. His little sister has gotten herself into what she thinks is a religious group, but is really just a front for other illegal activities. Micah knows he has to get his sister out, but she is not really inclined to trust him, based on his past record of screwing up. Nailgun Messiah is a complex and multi-layered story of all the people living in the house and the complex relationships and controls over them. Author Jim Heskett has developed so many levels that you don't know who is really a friend or a foe until the very end.
Nailgun Messiah is titled as the first book in the Micah Reed series, so it would seem that the author is planning to follow the main character through a few more books, which could be exciting. This book was full of adventure and intrigue, trying to figure how who was on what side, who you could trust and who you couldn't. Even after all that, I still found a few questions that were never fully answered, which is the mark of a good book. It leaves you still wondering about certain small parts and then there is the possibility that they show up again later in another book. This is a really good book, although there are themes of violence and mind control, in case any readers have issues with that. Definitely worth the read.
