True Target
A Skye Maddox Novel
by
Austin Camacho
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Thriller
Publisher: Audecyn Books
Publication Date: November 1, 2025
Page count: 298 pages
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SYNOPSIS:
Skye Maddox is a contract assassin driven by both personal demons and professional discipline. Hired by grieving father Milo Williams to hunt down the chain of men responsible for his son’s death, Skye takes on a mission that escalates into a war with Washington, D.C.’s most dangerous underworld figures led by a man known only as Hetman. As she climbs Milo’s ladder of revenge, Skye uncovers a web of corruption that links drug dealers, judges, mobsters, and even international crime syndicates.
The story escalates through brutal shootouts, betrayals, and psychological games, as Skye pushes deeper into Hetman’s empire. Each success makes her a bigger target. In the end, she must weigh the cost of finishing Milo’s revenge against the danger of becoming just another expendable weapon in someone else’s war.
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READ AN EXCERPT:
When Jayla stood, Skye raised a palm to stop her. “Yes. Yes, all right. I just finished an assignment, but it was part of a larger contract so I’m feeling like both the situations you mentioned. I’m on the job, and I just took a player off the board.”
Jayla jotted in her notebook. She always collected the euphemisms Skye used for her profession. “So, tell me about this latest assignment. How do you feel about this player you’ve taken off the board? Was it, in your mind, a just action?”
“You always want to go there,” Skye said, shaking her head. “What did I tell you? The first rule of the assassin’s doctrine. The target has got to deserve it.”
“Oh, yes,” Jayla said with a half-smile. “Your job, while criminal, does have rules
“I misspoke earlier,” Skye said, sliding a slim dagger out of her boot. “It’s not a job. It’s a profession. All professions have their rules. For doctors, rule number one is ‘do no harm’, right? For an assassin, it’s that the target has got to deserve it.” Skye began to absently flip the dagger in the air, catching it by its tip each time. “In this case, this bastard kidnapped my client’s son. I don’t know how they got him. My client kept his family totally under the radar. But once he got the ransom demand, the client agreed to pay, and the ransom money was in transit but not fast enough to suit the kidnappers. They killed the boy, I think just to make a point. Just to be snotty. The action took place overseas and no way the police would ever have gotten close to the killer.”
Jayla nodded. “I think I understand. So, you were hired to…”
“Correct the balance,” Skye said, standing.
GUEST POST:
Please welcome the author of today's featured book, Austin Camacho, to the blog to talk about minor characters who
insisted on playing a larger role in the story and how you get those characters to behave.
Austin Camacho: The protagonist in True Target is a professional assassin.
To remain effective and avoid police she lives largely off the grid and tries
not to leave a computer trail. That’s why she doesn’t own a car – when you
register a vehicle and get insurance, you’re in the system.
So instead, she takes Uber and in time has made an
arrangement with one driver – Morris Gardner. At first, I intended for Morris
(or Mo as Skye usually calls him) to be a very minor character, useful to move
Skye from place to place. Skye is a loner, and I had no intention of giving her
any friends. In fact, to keep Mo
disconnected from her business, she told him nothing about how she made her
living.
However, Mo developed a jovial personality. He naturally
asked questions about where he picked Skye up and dropped her off. He was
naturally curious. It seemed he would have to know she was doing something
confidential and potentially dangerous. He suspected an underworld connection,
but to him she could just as easily be an undercover cop or a spy. I couldn’t
keep him from caring about Skye. Being older than his passenger, Mo became
protective of her. What started as cold, detached conversation like you’d normally
get with an Uber driver developed into something more like father-daughter
dialog. Suddenly, Mo became the second banana, almost a sidekick, or as he
himself put it, Cato to her Green Hornet.
And to my surprise, I liked it that way.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Austin S. Camacho is the author of eight novels about Washington DC-based private eye Hannibal Jones, five in the Stark and O’Brien international adventure-thriller series, and the detective novel Beyond Blue. His short stories have been featured in several anthologies, and he is featured in the Edgar- nominated African American Mystery Writers: A Historical and Thematic Study by Frankie Y. Bailey. He is a past president of the Maryland Writers Association, past Vice President of the Virginia Writers Club, and one of the creators of the Creatures, Crimes & Creativity literary conference.
GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY!
Austin S. Camacho will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner.
Thank you so much for featuring TRUE TARGET today.
ReplyDeleteThanks much Paula for featuring my new book on your blog today. I'm curious if your readers think it's a good idea to let minor characters take charge sometimes.
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