Peter Ash, the main character in Nick Petrie’s bestselling series, is often compared to Lee Child’s Jack Reacher. And while there are many similarities between the former military men, Ash is in many ways more damaged than the almost-mythical Jack Reacher, which makes Ash’s story even more intriguing.

Suffering from PTSD and recovering from intense physical injuries, Ash fights his own demons as often as he battles human foes. In many ways, this makes him deeply empathetic to those dealing with their own issues, including Wanda Wyatt, a war correspondent now based in Tennessee, who has been targeted by a pair of homicidal brothers, and Eli Bell, a street kid and talented musician who is on the run from a ruthless gangster.

There’s a lot of action in this novel, from confrontations with psychotic gang members to machine gun attacks on Wanda’s house to car chases that up the body count. And while some of it is over the top—making the reader wonder if anything in Memphis is even left standing—Petrie spends equal time delving into the emotional lives of his characters, which adds much more dimension to the story. A couple of secondary characters—career criminal Lewis and Ash’s love interest, June Cassidy—also inject some humor to lighten up the carnage.

While all of Petrie’s characters have weaknesses, their strengths in dealing with adversity and their unwillingness to give up against almost overwhelming odds imbue each with a stoic heroism. Petrie’s characters have seen the worst the world has to offer and survived; and readers hope that Ash can ensure that they live to fight another day.