Joe Ricker has had a lot of jobs. He’s been a bartender, cab driver, innkeeper, professor, and worked in the Maine timber industry. Today he lives in Reno, Nevada. I suppose all those jobs gave him ideas for his great novels.

Joe’s new book, Some Awful Cunning, is billed as A Crime Thriller, and it certainly is. The main character is a young man, Ryan Carpenter, who helps people move away from dangerous and troubling situations to new locations. In the first chapter, he helps a woman and her child change their identity and move to another state to escape an abusive husband.

Ryan’s own life is in turmoil, including someone who is trying to kill him. And yes, there’s lots of murder and mayhem in this novel. Eventually, an attempt by Ryan to help a mentor takes him back to his hometown in Maine, where everyone remembers the tragedy that killed his entire family.

Well, I don’t want to give away anymore of this intriguing plot, but I can guarantee that it will keep you reading.