Operator Down: A Pike Logan Thriller

Again another terrific novel. Well written with plenty of action. It is fun to go to different parts of the world all in one book. The blending of so many different people and personalities is really good. Brad Taylor is definitely my favorite author

the whole story was slow. The action parts were terrible, just as slow as the rest of the story.Have read all of the books of Pike Logan, but this is the last one.Logan as ran the course, give him up.

Mr. Taylor delivers an intense novel full of suspense and expectation. When all is said and done, those same expectations are met and laid to rest. Just like all of the bad guys Pike Logan runs into.

Actually i was quite bored through most of the book. I have read all of Brad Taylor’s Pike Logan books and this book is written with a timeline for the author to finish in a hurry. The last one/fourth of the book feels like an add-on. Better luck next time!

The Taskforce is back again with Pike Logan, Knuckles and Jenny actively working a simple surveillance mission. Their job is to find out if a certain party involved in the Israeli diamond business is involved in a plot that could seriously embarrass and damage Israel’s reputation on a world-wide scale. But the simple mission blows up and goes awry, winding up with Pike’s good Israeli friends, Aaron and Shoshanna in serious trouble.
Aaron is kidnapped by South African forces who believe he is spying for America or Israel against their takeover of the government in Lesotho, South Africa. Shoshanna is a secret Israeli, former Mossad, agent who is a hot-tempered killing machine who turns deadly at the slightest attempt at deception.
The plot thickens and it turns out the Taskforce has wandered smack into a military coup in Lesotho and a plot by an American arms dealer to sell “triggers” for putting together a nuclear bomb to the right bidder. The latter must be stopped and that part of the plot is told in fragments as the kidnapping of Aaron takes precedence. Shoshanna doesn’t believe the group is doing enough to rescue her husband Aaron and so spends most of the novel alternatively going rogue when inflamed and cooperating when the Taskforce proves they are being trustful and loving.
The Taskforce follows its usual game plan of tracking the multi-layered group of “bad guys” who are either involved in nuclear arms dealing or government takeovers. At times it’s a bit drawn out and too long. However, bones break, bodies fly, and death is an ever-distracting moment away for all the characters involved in this mission.
Shoshanna prevails as the main character here, at points even turning against Pike and Jennifer. The force of her character leaves the readers breathless. Indeed the ending of the novel will also leave the reader stunned, far distant from what one expected. Again, a thriller that’s great adventure and a true international spy story to rival its counterparts in the genre!

Former Delta Force Officer Brad Taylor returns with another novel involving Pike Logan, his wife Jennifer Cahill and the rest of the mission impossible group known as the Taskforce. Col Taylor's formula for success is quite simple. Pike and company are tasked with completing a job assigned to them by their controllers; a top secret group at the apex of the U.S. government which includes the president. Their task is always to be outside of the United States per their charter. (as it happens not always per Pike).

This time the job is a simple one merely to determine whether or not a merchant in the Israeli Diamond Exchange is involved in a scheme that could potentially embarrass the state of Israel. As we know from being drawn into Col. Taylor's novels centering on the Taskforce nothing is ever simple and the plots always delineate Pike's ability to think and act outside of the box. An American arms dealer may or may not be attempting to

sell components of nuclear weapons to the highest bidder which is up to Pike and company to determine. At the same time characters from a previous Taskforce novel appear and alter the Taskforce's mission to include aiding them. These are former mosad members Shoshana and Aaron now husband and wife and working as independent contractors. Aaron gets himself captured by the people he is tracking for his current assignment and Shosana goes after him to get him away from their enemies. She is by nature a killing machine with I'd hate to have her coming after me personality. The Israeli's are drawn into Pike's assignment due to the probability of their goals overlapping. And, guess what they overlap.

As in all the Pike Logan books action is mercurial and combat situations described by a long time veteran of such actions vivid. Scenes shift from Israel to south Africa. A planned coup in a small African nation becomes a real factor in the plot and the place of the Taskforce of importance to the group fitting in neatly to the story.

Action, action and more action is the keynote to the plot and will be in future novels featuring Pike and Company. The stories are always interesting, even though similiar, and do draw in a faithful following.

Aaron and Shoshana, now married, are freelancing for Mossad. Aaron is tracking a group of suspicious men who Mossad worries are involved with the Israeli Diamond Exchange. Shoshana has been left behind, because Aaron takes Alexandra, a novice who works at the Diamond Exchange, as his partner. Shoshana is not happy.

Coincidentally, Pike and Jennifer are tracking a US arms dealer, Tyler Malloy. The Task Force, believes he may be engaged in subversive activities. The trail leads Pike and Jennifer to Israel where they try to meet up with Aaron and Shoshana. Shoshana puts them off. She hasn’t heard from Aaron and fears the worst.

The two threads come together for an exciting ending. As the all Pike Logan books, the action is non-stop. Also as usual, Pike moves beyond his assignment and has to convince the boss, Kurt, to let him go ahead.

I love the Pike Logan series; this is the 12th book. There’s a good blend of action and interplay between the characters. This book has particularly good character development. Shoshana, who is one of my favorite characters, grows significantly. Her love for Aaron turning her from a killing machine into a more vulnerable human.

At the end of the book, Taylor has a description of how he got interested in the plot and researched it. I highly recommend reading this section, but not until you’ve finished the book to avoid spoilers. It’s almost as exciting as the book itself.

I received this book from Dutton for this review.

This is a clever plot, and as another reviewer wrote, there is probably a good book in here somewhere. This, however, is not it. Some of the characters are patently absurd (hilariously unbelievable), others are somewhat better written. For example, the banter between Pike and Jennifer doesn't fit the character of the book - is it a true to life espionage thriller or a screwball, spy rom-com? The author doesn't handle these shifting tones well. I doubt they can work together at all. Most of the characters are mere plot devices.

There were a few utterly gratuitous, sickening episodes/comments here - XXX violence porn. "Blood, Blood, I'm taking that Jew down." Leads into one of them.

"I stood up, my eyes on the Orthodox Jew, saying, "I can't take him with me, but I can certainly take him down."

This is a remarkably repulsive image. Pike then loses it (not acting like a professional soldier at all) and beats the character, clearly a mope with little information to give, bloody, just for the hell of it. Thankfully he "calmed down". But this doesn't keep from one last little act. "And I hammered my boot straight between his legs, hard enough to lift him an inch off the ground. He screamed and rolled into a ball."

Thanks for that.

I have no military experience, but I have to wonder about some of the conduct portrayed. It is so over the top. I guess the violence is supposed to be justified by the importance of the mission - or is it what is typical readers want and expect? You would have to be pretty credulous to buy into this. Maybe it is supposed to be fantasy/horror/international thriller. Describing a character as a "supernatural predator" seems to head in this weird direction.

There is a hilariously ironic (unintended, I assume) line towards the end of the book where on of the main characters wonders if another mercenary is as moral as they are! In this book, the "good" guys/girls often aren't much different than the "bad" guys/girls.

This formulaic book needs lots of editing. Ultimately the characters are not very believable to me. The ending wrapped everything up in a tidy enough manner - we know who the winners and losers are. If you don't mind bursts of uncontrolled, mindless, brutal violence throughout the book, maybe you would enjoy it. I found it pretty repulsive.

"Operator Down" is the newest Pike Logan novel written by Brad Taylor. Pike is an independent operator with a team of highly trained and skilled people/weapons. Taylor himself a Delta Force retiree, writes with the testosterone driven love for strategy and violence that keeps most men (and many women) returning again and again for the Pike series that thrills them all. It is practically soaked in adrenaline.

In this novel, Pike and his team are on a mission to retrieve nuclear triggers from possible terrorist. Coincidentally, Aaron and Shoshana, Israeli operators and friends of Pike, are on their honeymoon when Aaron decides to take an assignment to South Africa because of some diamonds. The two assignments are believed to be connected, leaving Pike's team to solve both problems and clean up an international mess.

Love this series and love this book. Oddly, when I logged on to type this review, I see an article about Cape Town and the water crisis. Which is weird because I know extremely little about South Africa and yet I knew exactly what the article was talking about because of this book. Full of headlining stories and current events!

The book ended up as a page turner. Unfortunately I had trouble getting into it in the beginning and left it for weeks. I suspect the somewhat involved relationship with Israel, South Africa, an African coup and US interest was my problem. Originally I thought the author was taking exception to his earlier works (which I enjoyed) and then when I finally finished the book and read his comments I learned he was indeed working from a "clean slate." Possibly a list of characters in the front could help wade through the multiple names/call signs and de-conflict things a bit. I read a fair amount of different writers since it takes a couple days to complete a book and then you have to wait a year for any given author's next book to come out. Had it not been for my issues at the beginning this would have been a 5 star review.

Pike Logan and the Task Force get into another adventure. This all starts in the Israeli Diamond Exchange. This is the beginning of a plot against Israel. Two agents are sent to South Africa. They are both captured and held hostage.One is a female agent and the other is Aaron Bergmann.All
who read these books know that Aaron is the love of Shoshana. She is a member of the Task Force. She is mean and homicidal and she will be very
agressive when it comes to Aaron. Their guards rough Aaron up. In the meantime Pike Logan and the Task Force are agressively hunting for Aaron
and the other agent. They follow several leads out of Israel and they all lead to South Africa. The forces of evil are trying to overthrow the ruling
government. The Task Force arrives abd the battle is on. A very good book.

Brad Taylor writes a well crafted thriller. Though Operator Down is book 12 in a series, I have not read the series and I didn't feel at a loss. The premise was strong and the novel carried out the story well. I found it a little strange at times, the characters all had code names so I had some difficulty matching them up, but that was more of a personal problem I believe. The story, though well plotted, started out a little too slowly for my taste, I would have liked a little faster pace throughout. I did, however, find the character of Pike Logan intriguing enough to seek out more from the series. I have read reviews that suggest reading the books in order for best effect as they tend to build upon each other.

The authors best Pike Logan book since the first one and I have read them all. It was exciting to read and I appreciate the writing effort. The inclusions of Shoshana and Aaron were a good move and helped to keep the back and forth chatter down between Pike, Jennifer and the team. I sometimes find that chatter to be distracting from the main story in the other books about Pike. I hope the author continues to write future books more like this one. In his Acknowledgements in the back he said he wanted to write something different with a story that would never make the US news cycle but was still real. I think the author got excited in his writing the book and it shows.

Another roller coaster ride! I love Shoshana. She only wants to have a "normal" life and is tired of being a weapon. Aaron understands her, knows her and loves her anyway. But, Aaron takes a routine job and disappears. Aaron knows that Shoshana will come for him. He just has to stay alive until then. Pike and his team are following an arms dealer and their path crosses with Shoshana. Shoshana has been attacked, then Pike shows up and she isn't sure if he is part of the problem or a solution. There is a coup brewing in Lesotho, betrayal, a prison break and the team is right in the middle of it. In trying to do the right thing, the team may cause an international incident. An exciting read.

Another great Pike Logan novel from Brad Taylor. I read a great deal; one or two books a week on average. Everything from Fantasy to suspense tp sci-fi is on the table for me. I love the Operator/Tier 1 type books a great deal. The Mitch Rapp series by Vince Flynn has always been the standard for me, but, I have to say Brad Taylor is right there with him. His characters are so well developed with all their various personality traits and quirks they seems so real. Obviously Mr. Taylor's experience within SFOD-Delta lends to the believability of his stories. If you like this genre, you will love his books. My only request... A pumpkin king spinoff. Shoshana is one of the best supporting characters and I would love to read some more of her.

Jaw-droppingly good on any level you could name. A book that has all five human elements lined up and executed to perfection: body, heart, will, mind, soul. Profoundly satisfying, a pleasure, smile-evoking and gut-clenching, often at the same time. Shows the exceptional energy, focus and intelligence that only a former Delta commander could bring to the writing. Amazing.

I'm getting tired of reading stories in the Middle East and surrounding countries. The entire story was slow and lacked good action. Insisting on "sanction" for doing anything, making two practice parachute jumps, and measuring distance in meters instead of miles. For over 250 pages nothing worth writing about occurred. This will be my last book in this series!

great book. Another rip-roaring tale about Pike Logan and his crew. The Israelites are featured in this book, Aaron and Shoshana. Aaron is on a job in Africa and disappears. They go after Shoshana. which is a mistake. Pike's mission and Aarons disappearance merge and you have an action-packed book. which of course is totally implausible but great reading.

Crazy, and good reading

I was apprehensive about this book, because I couldn't finish his previous work (Ring of Fire) due to being slow and boring. However, Brad Taylor delivered this time.
I also enjoyed the plot more. As he writes in the afterword, this was his first work where he took the time and made the plot credible but not out of front page news. I hope he will continue to do more of that.

Operator Down is the twelfth book in the Logan Pike Thriller series. This can be read as a standalone. But since each book builds on the previous storylines, I recommend that you read them in order if possible. There is violence.

The book blurb adequately describes the storyline so I'm not going to repeat all of that info here. This is a well crafted thriller. The author did a good job of keeping a steady pace throughout the book to keep this reader interested. It kept me guessing what twists and turns would be revealed in the pages ahead. As usual, nothing is quite as it seems on the surface. I enjoyed this book and had a hard time putting it down.