Jack Taggart, an undercover Mountie, lives in a world where the good guys and the bad guys change places in a heartbeat. Taggart is very good at what he does. Too good to be playing by the rules, so the brass assign a new partner to spy on him.

Taggart’s new partner discovers a society dependent upon unwritten rules. To break these rules is to lose respect, and to lose respect is to lose one’s life. Loose Ends is is a tale of violence, corruption, and retribution, but it is also a story of honour and respect.

Don Easton spent his career in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police as an undercover operative who worked in foreign countries. He lives in Victoria, British Columbia.

Don Easton's premise for writing this novel came from personal experience. He was a former RCMP undercover operative who had been sent to El Paso where his investigation then took him into Juarez. Some of the events in this novel are shocking, made even more so when told by someone who has been there. Birds of a Feather is Easton's sixth Jack Taggart Mystery, following Loose Ends, Above Ground, Angel in the Full Moon, Samurai Code, and Dead Ends.

Don Easton's profile page

Easton never tips his hand as what's to come, leading the reader into the world of biker gangs, petty infighting and some truly brutal scenes of violence that will make the reader clamour for more.

Bookgasm

The grime and grisliness portrayed in Loose Ends are solidly rooted in reality, but be prepared for some pretty shocking revelations. … The ending will blow you away.

Saskatoon Star-Phoenix

A gripping novel that is difficult to put down, Loose Ends is everything a mystery should be. At times it is a heart-wrenching tale, and at others a loathing epic of criminal unjustness. For those of us who have lived always by the book, Easton shows that the book sometimes needs to be set aside and that the rules sometimes need to bend. Sometimes the best way to bring justice to society is to break the law. Right or wrong, you can't help but feel the emotions and respect the motives of our main character.

RCMP Quarterly

While shining a light on the seedier side of life, Easton also provides and entertaining and worthwhile read.

Black Press

Easton, who lives in Vancouver, spent a couple of decades working undercover for the RCMP. He clearly knows the world he writes about. The novel is realistic, with an attention to detail that pulls you right into the story. A very promising debut.

Winnipeg Free Press

Loose Ends is a slick first novel about a Mountie who works undercover, and its author, Don Easton, is a Mountie who worked undercover for 20 years. Thus we get a lot of verisimilitude and plenty of insider bits. … Jack Taggart is our Mountie, and he lives in a fallen world where everything from your shoes to your name can be changed in an instant. What's slick about this story is that Taggart is under suspicion by his own force: The RCMP has set a spy on him in the form of a new partner. In the tradition of Training Day, Taggart is about to teach his new charge some tough life lessons.

Globe and Mail