Reviewed by Anne Boling for Readers' Favorite

We met Jess E. Hanes in the book, Operation: Eyewitness, where he witnessed the murder of a high official in the Moroccan government. After quite an adventure involving drug smugglers and terrorists, Jess returned home to a magnificent ranch, a gift from the King of Morocco. He and his wife, Marie Ann, were placed in the Witness Protection Program. In this book, Amarillo Mariposa, we move forward three years to 2001. For three years the couple lived a peaceful existence, but that ended on 9/11 when terrorism hit the shores of the U.S. in the form of three airplanes flown into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

The U.S. Marshall in charge of the Hanes' protection had to pull out her security detail and replaced it with a private firm. It took Jess by surprise to discover all six were beautiful women. Just as they were getting settled in, an airplane flew overhead and dropped two parcels and both exploded on impact. The terrorist had not forgotten Jess and vowed to take him out.

Marie Ann left for a visit to her home in Indiana and Jess headed to Odessa, Texas, where he was doing research on his grandfather. He took along his treasure hunting equipment, hoping to do a little searching while in the area. As we all know, when Jess goes treasure hunting, he usually finds danger. In this sequel, he once again faces a fight for his life. Our hero battles terrorists and drug smugglers.

D. Rudd Wise set a high bar with Operation: Witness; he does it again in Amarillo Mariposa. He brings his expertise as a professional treasure hunter to this tome. While this is only Wise’s second book, his art reads like it was written by a much more seasoned author. I believe he is working on the third Jess E. Hanes novel.

Amarillo Mariposa is an action-packed thriller. From the first page it grabbed my attention and held it to the last. I could not put this book down and stayed up all night reading it. Some of the things that are outstanding are the photographs, which make this book more realistic. This is a Christian Action/Adventure/Thriller. Wise allows his Christian faith to shine in his books, and yet, he is never preachy. The characters come to life and march off the pages. Wise has taken time to develop the secondary characters which gives this book depth. The plot is realistic; by using current events the author pulls the readers emotions into the story. I look forward to reading more of D. Rudd Wise’s work.