There’s a lot for people to be nervous about in author J.D. Rhoades’ newest novel, Gallows Pole. For starters, there’s a killer striking families nationwide, leaving in his wake a scene so disturbing it rattles even seasoned law enforcement veterans.

Entire families are being hanged in a methodical fashion, the father apparently made to be the executioner for his wife and each of his children in turn before taking his own life. Yet, enough clues have been left behind that it’s clear these were not murder-suicides. The process is too similar, the presentation at each scene too exact, and most chilling, a calling card from the killer has been left behind at each of the mass murders: a small iron horse.

Melissa Saxon, the FBI agent in charge of the investigation, understands she has her hands full with such a complex and sophisticated killer. When she receives a visit from two men who claim to have information about the killings she thinks it could be the break she’s looking for.

What she gets instead is an understanding that what’s going on is even bigger and more dangerous than she could possibly have imagined. The men who’ve come to her are surviving members of an elite counter-terrorist team known as Iron Horse, and they believe the killer is one of their own, a man known as The Hangman, gone rogue. They believe they can help catch the killer, but it won’t be easy. First they’ll have to reassemble their team, including their psychologically scarred leader, Colonel Mark Bishop. →