A Spy Thriller (Pike Logan Thriller Book 1) - One Rough Man

SO MUCH arguing between a combat pro and an annoying female "sidekick." I wanted to slap her! That may have been the author's intent but it caused me to skip pages to get through it. Great storyline but the ending is corny and silly.

Yes, this was a decent one. Pretty fast paced. Kept the interest alive. The story took some time to settle in. But after that it was a comforting chase-and-thrill; like a song with rocky prelude but a catchy hookline. Till the end, that is. The climax needed tightening. And to have major things there left 'off-screen' doesn't help the effect. Still, worth it.

This is the author's debut novel, which means that I fully expected the storytelling to have problems when I began reading it.

Parts of this novel deserved 2-stars or less. Other parts deserved 3-stars. In the end, I decided to give it 3-stars instead of 2, but my real grade would've been 2.5-stars.

The Bad Guys are ex-U.S. Special Forces
I found it interesting that most of the really bad guys in this novel, the ones who do all the killings for the bad guys, are said to be ex-SEALs, or ex-Rangers, or ex-U.S. Special Forces. Which would appear to be saying that the guys the U.S. government trains to protect America, eventually become amoral mercenaries after they get out of the military and that they have no compulsion about killing American citizens. I don't know if that was the author's intended communication, but it seems to support the idea that the men who sign up for special forces don't really give a damn about their country, they just want to play with guns and kill people. I hope that's not true.

Way Too Many Coincidences... which resulted in the loss of verisimilitude
The main plot, in order for it to work, required far too many coincidences. The appearance or semblance of truth (verisimilitude) is what makes these kind of thrillers fun to read. As such, when that verisimilitude is damaged, some of the enjoyment is also damaged, and one of the most common ways to undermine a story's verisimilitude is to rely on one or more coincidences in order to make the plot work. And another problem with coincidences is that once an author uses them once in the beginning of the story, the author will most likely continue to use them in later parts of the story. There are many coincidences in this story, but here is just one example:

Coincidence #1: Pike Logan is conveniently hanging out at a popular local bar, The Windjammer, that is 4-5 miles from his boat basin. He rode his bike. Okay, somewhat believable.

Coincidence #2: Jennifer Cahill (28 yrs old) makes the rare decision to go out for a night of partying with a girlfriend and she goes to The Windjammer. Okay, again somewhat believable, but putting Pike and Jennifer in the same bar on the same night was definitely coincidental. However, if either coincidence #1 or coincidence #2 does not happen, then the remainder of the story's plot is totally lost.

Coincidence #3: Pike has gotten into a bar fight with someone Jennifer knows, and Jennifer decides to defend the drunken Pike Logan. But wait! Pike's not drunk... he's just faking it. Gee, I wonder what the author is up to?

Coincidcence #4: Hey, surprise, Pike is not really drunk, he's just faking it.
Everything up to this point in the story tells us that Pike, in mourning his wife's & daughter's murder, has turned to drinking. The old man at the marina who has been casually spying on Pike for two months tells us that Pike frequently "stank of liquor, the foul smell wafting out of his pores like a frog" and that the old man considered Pike a drunk. But as we soon discover, on this one particular night, Pike is just faking that he is drunk. Gee, how convenient... and just the type of coincidence that the story needs in order for the plot to work. If Pike had been drunk, then he would not have been in a condition to fight off the two men who intercept Jennifer at the marina. The coincidences are starting to pile up.

Coincidence #5: The two badass bad guys decide to intercept Jennifer at Pike's marina.
This is the most significant unbelievable and contrived coincidence. Miguel Portilla, the bad guy from Mexico, has asked his American partners in crime to get a FedEx package from Jennifer Cahill. They send two guys to get the package. But what happens? These two guys, who've been sent to get a FedEx package, decide to intercept Jennifer just as she is leaving Pike's boat. Huh? Huh? Why there? They've been following her, so they know she's not carrying "a package" with her. And besides, she lives alone ("a one-bedroom apartment in a row house on Pitt Street, two blocks from the College of Charleston"). There are so many obvious better choices for when to intercept Jennifer. Heck, they could have used her trip to Isle of Palms as a perfect opportunity to break into her apartment and search for the package... or to wait for her to come home alone after her weekend at the beach.

And as we discover, all of these contrived coincidences result in Pike defending Jennifer from the two bad guys (he even kills both of them because he's not really drunk), and now he and Jennifer are linked (which is the whole objective of all these coincidences), and Jennifer can now tell Pike about the trouble her uncle has seemingly gotten into.

IMO: Too many contrived coincidences for my liking in order to make the plot work.

Another huge coincidence: Lucas Kane, the mercenary who killed Pike's wife and kid, just so happens to be working for Harold Standish later in the story.

Omniscient POV
The main reason for giving this novel a 3-star rating and not higher is the author's poor use of POV. It's supposed to be a Pike Logan novel, but it's not really a Pike Logan novel. The author chose to use 3POV Omniscient for all of the other point of view characters (POVCs), and there are way too many other POVCs. As such, it's everybody's story and not really the protagonist's story. And as the story progresses, the author starts jumping from one character's thoughts to another character's thoughts and back again, often times happening within the span of a few paragraphs.

Two Really Smart (Too Smart) Arab Terrorists - Not Unbelievable
Sayyidd and Bakr went from run-of-the-mill, smuggling terrorists acting on orders, to scientific geniuses. Oh, and they also spoke at least four languages (Arabic, English, Spanish, and Serbo-Croatian). While I like smart bad guys, Sayyidd's and Bakr's range of knowledge and expertise was totally unbelievable. They were surveillance experts, electronics experts, chemical weapons experts, demolition experts, and experts in knowing the security measures used in Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and every foreign country they entered. Basically, whatever problem they encountered, they magically knew exactly how to deal with it. No terrorist organization would send anyone this smart on a suicide mission. These guys were management material, the ones who would be supervising the suicidal dummies.

Summary
The author spends too much time in almost every character's head, the result of which is that the pace of the story slows down every time the author decides to share the inner thoughts of all these characters. Some readers may like this style, but I don't.

Lots of "filler" in this story. Sharing so many different character's idle thoughts = filler. Having to rely on coincidences to make the plot work = more filler. Dragging out scenes that have no real importance to the plot = filler.

Example of filler: Pike and Jennifer fly into Atlanta, on their way to Washington D.C., and the author spends more than three chapters getting them safely out of the airport after they have been tagged as suspected terrorists. The plot point was that they had been tagged as suspected terrorists and were now hunted fugitives. But the author focused on their process of getting out of the airport, which had no other purpose to the story than to show, once again, how Pike was skilled enough to evade any and all law enforcement. The author could've cut 90% of the airport scene and nothing would have been lost.

An enetertaining read. The plot is not particularly realistic but it does have a few convolutions. I was unimpressed by the final resolution. Working the backstory into the character develpoment can be tricky but this author did a nice job at that.
I would probably read another of his books.

when an author sets up scenarios or actions that are beyond belief the interests level goes down hill. The story is about a tough guy granted but when Pike defeats half a dozen SEALS while unarmed goes beyond believability.

Being a veteran of the Marine Corps and an amatuer military historian, the book was excellent and I really enjoyed the characters and the various sub plots in the book. Actually read his latest book first and liked it so much< I went back to read all the books he has written.

Was an interesting read as it developed the base lines of the characters. Then the story took off and kept your interest. Couple of character flaws and some highly doubtful character abilities, along the way. But that's what reading is all about!!

I had hoped I was finding yet another great author who's series I would enjoy reading for months. I just could not get into this character. The plot seemed to jump around too much for me, and I was never really sure where I was. I never finished it, but just discarded it. Sorry Mr. Taylor.

The book really started slowly and I was losing interest but the second half of the book when he meets up with Jennifer revived my interest. I look forward to seeing Jennifer in the next book hopefully.

My first Brad Taylor novel.
A page turner that kept me from some needed nighttime sleep.
I have just received the second in this series, and expecting
it to as good as the first one.
If you liked Tom Clancy and Vince Flynn, you will enjoy Brad Taylor.

An outstanding debut novel, Brad Taylor draws on his experience as a Delta Force commander to deliver an action-packed thriller. The realism and attention to detail makes this a must read for fans of Vince Flynn and Brad Thor. Pike Logan is a flawed hero who I found myself rooting for time and time again.

Authorized by the President, the Taskforce was formed to operate outside the law and without sanction from congressional oversight in order to deal with the increasing presence of terrorists. Pike Logan was the best of the best, and as team leader never failed to complete a mission successfully. At his best when the plans started to break down, Pike was known for his quick thinking and decisive action. Finally succumbing to his wife's repeated requests to retire from his job, Pike was on his last mission when tragedy struck his family. Unable to deal with the guilt of being away when his family needed him most, Pike went on a downward spiral and sought solace in the bottom of a bottle.

Meanwhile, Professor John Cahill was in the Guatemalan jungle searching for his mythical Temple of the Priests. When his guides refused to go any further into the jungle, two young natives seeking treasure stole his GPS and found the Temple. They also found a white powder which quickly killed one of the boys while the other made it back to tell the story. Cahill, ever cautious, embedded the GPS coordinates in some music mp3 files and e-mailed them to his niece Jennifer, who was a student at the College of Charleston. He then deleted all information from his laptop and GPS.

Miguel, who was a very successful smuggler, was in negotiations with two Arabs to smuggle certain items into the United States when the young boy from the jungle told the tale of finding the Temple and the ensuing death of his friend from the mysterious white powder. Feigning ignorance of the Spanish language, the two Arab terrorists became interested in the powder as a source for a WMD. Miguel, also known as "Machete," was more interested in the treasure and potential wealth it may bring. Machete ordered his henchmen to pick up Professor Cahill in hopes of finding the location of the Temple. Cahill told Machete that he had FedExed the GPS to his niece in Charleston, South Carolina. Professor Cahill died as Machete was torturing him to find out additional information about the GPS. The two terrorists found the key to the embedded mp3 files on a thumb drive amid Cahill's possessions and were able to obtain the deadly powder.

Machete sent a team to Charleston to retrieve the GPS from Jennifer and as luck would have it, Pike was able to thwart the attack and kill the mobsters. Pike did not want to be looking over his shoulder from the Machete's agents for the rest of his life, so he agreed to go to Guatemala and deliver the non-existent GPS. Jennifer went with Pike and they formed a somewhat tenuous and unlikely partnership. It was in Guatemala that Pike and Jennifer learned of the terrorist's possession of the WMD and they decided they had to stop the attack in order to prevent widespread death and panic.

In Washington DC, a member of the government also learned of the terrorist's intentions and decided to delete all known references to the attack in order for him to play the part of hero and savior, thus catapulting him to a higher position in the government. He wanted no loose ends and ordered Pike and Jennifer to be killed. Therefore the dynamic duo found themselves chasing the terrorists and dodging multiple assassination attempts.

This was a very good debut novel with an interesting plot and in depth knowledge of special forces operations. If you enjoy action packed novels as I do, then this is the book for you. I look forward to reading the future adventures of Pike Logan and Jennifer Cahill.

I only started reading novels at about age 35, 44 now, and really enjoyed the Dan Brown books and read every Vince Flynn book. Since Vince has passed I've been wondering who will write something that will keep my attention as he did.

Well, so this book was certainly a start. It was an interesting, mindless (no offense, just an easy reading escape) journey.

Hope you enjoy too.

Kind of unimaginative, predictable story line. If you don't read that often and prefer to find a homerun, skip this. Parts of the stroy are really entertaining and grip you but then others make you cringe and slap yurself in the forehead saying "did i just read that"?

Another good read from the always reliable Brad Taylor. The only negative is his penchant for jumping around from one POV to another in too many of the chapters. Maybe more, shorter chapters would help.

I like action packed books and this really delivered. I couldn't put it down. Can hardly wait to read others by him. Oh, by the way, I am a female reader and encourage anyone to give this author a try. You won't be disappointed.

Excellant character (Pike Logan) You got to read all three books (in sequance) to best understand the development of the character. I wish there was a more clear way to do that, but I found I had to review all three and go by publish date.

A very good introduction to the Pike Logan/Jennifer Cahill series. Brad Taylor creates the backstory for both protagonists and does so in a dark, convincing yet affectionate manner. I really liked the concept of the "damaged hero" and the "damsel definitely NOT in distress!" In her own way, Cahill is probably as tough as Logan. She's as cerebral and definitely more intuitive. And, she comes to his rescue (both emotionally and physically) more than once. Not to worry for all you readers who like a strong male lead; Logan kicks ass better than most, and does so for all the right reasons. His character is viscerally more appealing to me than Jack Reacher, and I'm a big Jack Reacher fan, having read that series, too. Good storytellilng by Brad Taylor; he definitely writes with an authenticity on tradecraft and technology. The good news for anyone who is just starting the series with this book is that the writing and stories just keep getting better! I started about halfway through the series, then looped back to see what I had missed (a lot!). I enjoyed this book immensely, and have enjoyed the entire series. The plots and twists have become more believable and interesting. I am now anxiously awaiting Taylor's next release, but unfortunately have read a few "stinkers" by other authors in the mean time. Can't wait to see how the Logan/Cahill "partnership" develops and what direction it goes.

I thoroughly enjoyed this believable tale of black ops and political duplicity. The characters were well crafted and compelling. The antagonists were appropriately misanthropic. It was difficult to find a place to put it down for a break. I'm looking forward to the author's latest work.

Excellant character (Pike Logan) You got to read all three books (in sequance) to best understand the development of the character. I wish there was a more clear way to do that, but I found I had to review all three and go by publish date.

A very good introduction to the Pike Logan/Jennifer Cahill series. Brad Taylor creates the backstory for both protagonists and does so in a dark, convincing yet affectionate manner. I really liked the concept of the "damaged hero" and the "damsel definitely NOT in distress!" In her own way, Cahill is probably as tough as Logan. She's as cerebral and definitely more intuitive. And, she comes to his rescue (both emotionally and physically) more than once. Not to worry for all you readers who like a strong male lead; Logan kicks ass better than most, and does so for all the right reasons. His character is viscerally more appealing to me than Jack Reacher, and I'm a big Jack Reacher fan, having read that series, too. Good storytellilng by Brad Taylor; he definitely writes with an authenticity on tradecraft and technology. The good news for anyone who is just starting the series with this book is that the writing and stories just keep getting better! I started about halfway through the series, then looped back to see what I had missed (a lot!). I enjoyed this book immensely, and have enjoyed the entire series. The plots and twists have become more believable and interesting. I am now anxiously awaiting Taylor's next release, but unfortunately have read a few "stinkers" by other authors in the mean time. Can't wait to see how the Logan/Cahill "partnership" develops and what direction it goes.

I thoroughly enjoyed this believable tale of black ops and political duplicity. The characters were well crafted and compelling. The antagonists were appropriately misanthropic. It was difficult to find a place to put it down for a break. I'm looking forward to the author's latest work.