Job Hunt The Power of Zero Book #1
Vigilante, Thriller, Gay Romance
Independent
Jan 15, 2020
Kindle
320
Amazon
A well-armoured lone wolf.
Vigilante hacker Jack Horwood doesn't hunt pimps because he enjoys it.
He expects neither praise, support, or even payment.
Jack fights and lives alone, but when he meets his former CO, his carefully constructed life goes off the rails.
A fierce protector.
Gareth Flynn looks after people, whether they're the men in his army unit, the members of the corporate security department at Nancarrow Mining, or an overcaffeinated, underfed Jack Horwood.
Gareth has waited seven years for a chance to look after Jack again.
Even if that job should come with a hazard warning.
A life-changing decision.
Working together brings back memories. A snap decision changes the game.
And neither Jack nor Gareth can walk away from what they've just discovered: explosive chemistry, a tentative trust, a chance at a home and a family.
A second chance is a boon. Can they make it work, or will Jack's secrets and Gareth's need to protect destroy the family they're building?
Job Hunt is the start of an m/m action adventure suspense romance series of survival, love, revenge, and second chances.
From the Desk of Gloria Lakritz
Review Chair for the Paranormal Romance Guild
Our Reviewers have begun this year with PRG wanting to do new things for our authors. We were the First to do DUAL REVIEWS. We are planning a 6 Book challenge for Jackie Keswick planning to Review her 6 book Series- The Power of Zero, labeling it THE PRG Menage. Now Linda, Ulysses and I doing individual reviews as you see below and Harlequin finishing up at book 6 with a grand finale review at the end Let us know what you think of this idea. We might have giveaways and author talks too….Let us know what you think
Review by Linda Tonis
Jack Horwood joined the army when he was seventeen, then MI6 until he decided he didn’t want to be collateral damage anymore. Jack is a genius at hacking into company computers and getting the information he wants, which is why he has now applied to Nancarrow Mining to work in their security division. Jack knew that there were breaches in their system and knew he was perfect for the job until his interview was interrupted by a man he never expected to see again.
Gareth Flynn was Jack’s CO in the army and was the man Jack fell for, but he was young, and Gareth never showed any signs of feeling the same. When Gareth interrupted the interview, it was because he had always cared for Jack but in the army, it was his job to protect not seduce. He had been looking for Jack, but Jack couldn’t face working with Gareth and turned down the position.
The two men were brought together again when Jack was working undercover with an inspector from the Met in finding evidence against a pimp known for keeping young boys and beating them. Jack never turns down a job where he can save a boy from a living nightmare. Jack dresses and looks like the kind of boy the pimp would be looking for, some drops in the eyes giving the appearance of being stoned and he is ready to be the bait that could bring this pimp to justice.
Gareth goes as Jack’s backup, but things don’t go as planned, the pimp sees Jack as a catch and orders the boy with him to show him the ropes. The boy Ricky tries to convince Jack that he should run and have nothing to do with the pimp which Jack would listen to if it wasn’t for the fact that he realized Ricky was hurt badly so a change of plans. Two other young boys are holding on to each other for dear life huddled in a corner and now rescue rather than evidence is the order of the day.
Gareth gets the two boys out of the club and Jack carries Ricky out, but freedom doesn’t happen for Ricky, he stops one of the bouncers who caught up to them and while saving Jack gets stabbed. The stab wound doesn’t kill Ricky internal bleeding does. Daniel and Nico are sent to the hospital, and it would take Jack to finally get through to them and get them to talk. What the boys describe broke my heart and if their treatment at the hands of monsters is not something you can handle then I would recommend putting this book aside.
Jack finally agrees to accept the position at Nancarrow Mining and between discovering there is a severe security breach and finding the guilty party he doesn’t put finding the pimp on the back burner. Jack has a personal reason for why putting away these pimps is so important to him; it isn’t so much the pimps but saving as many young boys as he can. With no ID on the pimp, and no fingerprints, the only hope of putting the pimp away and keeping him in jail once he is caught is the two boys as witnesses.
This book was so sad, and it is unfortunately a reality. Jack is a troubled man who wants to accept Gareth in his life but is fearful of failing. He can’t accept that he couldn’t save Ricky through no fault of his own, but it still is a constant hurt. The description of what these boys are put through is something that rocked me to the core. Putting the pimps away is a start but all the men who paid to abuse these boys is as much to blame if not more their need to abuse young boys is the reason pimps get rich.
I can’t wait for book two since the book ended with some unresolved issues, issues I can’t wait to see rectified.
Review by Ulyssses Dietz
Book one of Jackie Keswick’s “Power of Zero” series is fast-paced, gripping, a little relentless, and well-stocked with characters that go deep. This is a new edition, released in 2020, and was my first experience with this author’s work.
Jack Horwood, 30, is a genius hacker with a complicated history and an unstoppable sense of justice. Having walked away from a position in MI6, Jack is drawn to what appears to be a dream technical security job at a highly successful mining company HQ in London. Imagine his surprise when, right after his interview, Gareth Flynn, Jack’s former commanding officer, walks into the room.
Flynn hasn’t seen Jack since his sudden departure from the military at the age of 22, but he’s never forgotten the teenager who walked into his outfit and left a mature, highly skilled soldier. Flynn doesn’t know that Jack was as obsessed with his CO as he was with his much younger soldier.
The problem is that Jack is a hardcore loner, and his long-ago feelings for his commander don’t fit well with his vigilante hacker lifestyle. He’s not comfortable with emotion, and in the course of the story we find out why.
The narrative in this book is a quirky, double-barreled one: there’s Jack’s new job tracking down cyber problems in his new employer’s tech systems; and then there’s Jack’s ongoing “help” for Scotland Yard in tracking down a notorious London pimp deeply engaged in the sex trafficking of minors.
So the book’s action is driven on the one hand by amazing discoveries Jack has made in Nancarrow Mining’s database, and on the other hand by two terrified teenagers, Nico and Daniel, who are rescued from the clutches of the elusive pimp.
Jack loves his new job, and is surprised and pleased to find that his new boss returns his long-suppressed feelings. But Nico and Daniel fill his thoughts with fear and anger, and he can’t let go of his other, unpaid job.
Gareth is caught in the middle, realizing that he doesn’t really know this young man about whom he cares so much. If he and Jack are to have a future, Gareth needs to be there for him right now. Jack can save Nancarrow Mining, and he can save the teenagers; but he can’t do it alone, as much as he wants to.
It’s a dark and troubling story, but it’s also exciting and rather fascinating to watch Jack’s all-but-superhuman skills at work.
I’ve bought the second book in the series (Ghosts) because I found I wasn’t done with these two men either.
Review by Gloria Lakritz
From the beginning, I knew this was not going to be an easy read. Ms. Keswick has so many ways to go with this series…..I tell you I am scared. Jack has returned after leaving the army 8 years ago. Leaving his CO and confidant at 22. Gareth Kelly has been waiting, not knowing why Jack left.
We meet Jack coming in for a job interview….He is excellent at what he does and he has researched this company and knows that they need him. As the meeting wound down and in walked his ex CO Gareth all bets were off on where this was going.
Jack was still working for the government, dealing with child endangerment and could walk the back allies and night clubs saving children caught in trafficking. After all he was sold as a young boy to be raped and beaten himself. He got away and a man took him in, gave him food, a place to stay and taught him everything he knew until Jack joined the military at 17. Gareth was his CO and thru the years he wanted Garrett more than a friend. Gareth could not respond at what he knew Jack was looking for; as his CO he was honor bound to Do No Harm. Now 8 years this was different.
This book had everything. Glimpses into how Jack had emerged as champion of the young, of the weak and tireless in keeping people safe. It was to that end he saved 2 young boys Nico and Daniel trapped by a pimp living in squalor and sold and beaten daily. He also is busy at his new job showing his new bosses how bad their systems are and the changes he needs to make.
All this, as the relationship that waited all those years begins to bloom, and the effects it has on both men trying to wade through issues of trust, new family and work. Jack we know has issues, trust the worst, as we watch him trying to do good. The sadness of his background is enough to damage anyone forever, but jack wants his forever with Gareth and maybe they can get it.