Bad Axe County, Wisconsin, has recently seen the arrival of a strange new cult. Most of the members work at a local factory, but their secretive nature and the amount of guns they’re stockpiling at the empty storage facility where they live have people worried. And in modern America, when people are worried they get violent, in rhetoric if nothing else. Sheriff Heidi Kick is trying to keep things civil but she doesn’t need the distraction–one of the group was found murdered, and she’s trying to trace the man’s past. Plus, she’s just gotten news that her ex-boyfriend is out of jail.
Former ATF official Duke Hashimoto is worried too. He was working the Branch Davidian debacle in which 25 children died. He’s keeping a quiet eye on the House of Shalah, off the record so to speak. His source inside has disappeared, and the source’s wife, Fernanda, is doing all she can to protect her two girls, even though talking to Hashimoto might put them at further risk.
Heidi Kick has a rough past. When both her parents were killed, she went off the rails and fell in a with a bad group led by an even worse man, the man who is recently out of jail and wants revenge. On top of that, she’s not sure who she can trust in her own office. Someone is doing their best to undermine her authority, and trying to get her removed from office.
Bad Day Breaking is an exciting read, but it deals with some deeper issues. Can we truly escape the past? Can good deeds done now cancel out our past sins? (I mean this psychologically, not theologically) Although it would make an exciting action movie, the book has plenty of thoughtful descriptions to engage readers of all kinds. Also, although this is book four of a series, it stands alone with no problem.