Sunday, August 17, 2014

The Closing Shots – Wrapping Summer Reads 2014


Bravo – Greg Rucka – (Muhlholland Books)

Author Greg Rucka has quietly built a collection of highly entertaining characters that span a whole pile of great books, that for some reason I can’t quite explain have flown under the radar.


His latest entry, Bravo, featuring tough guy, shooter, Jad Bell runs at a breakneck pace, weaving mysterious players who drive the story while hanging around the edges of the action and the hunt for answers to prevent a terrorist attack on the homefront. This follow up to Rucka’s first shot of the Jad Bell character, Alpha has me re-considering my list of favorite authors to make room for this highly skilled writer.

On Scope – A Sniper Novel – Jack Coughlin, USMC Retired (St. Martins Press)

Spain, like much of the free world, is teetering in the brink of economic collapse, when a group of Islamic bankers offer up a seemingly no strings attached solution. Their hidden agenda is to break off a chunk of the European Union to create a new Islamic stronghold. In an effort to protect their interests and hold off United States sticking their nose into things, these Islamists launch a brazen attack on the U. S. embassy in Madrid.


The plan backfires and brings the group of six Islamic bankers squarely into the sites of Task Force Trident and ace sniper Kyle Swanson. In On Scope from author Jack Coughlin, the latest entry in the ongoing Sniper Novel series, Swanson and company take the fight directly to the terrorists, picking off the bad guys one by one. Given the world economic climate and the terrorist’s desire to find new ways to bring the world to its knees, this story chillingly all to real.   

Days of Rage -Brad Taylor (Dutton Books)

Former Delta Force operator/commander Brad Taylor continues his string of successfully calling the shots when it comes to new terrorist threats in his latest entry in the Pike Logan thriller series, Days of Rage. When you consider the average timeline for writing and publishing novels, Taylor would have had to put words on the page about a year prior to the average person ever even hearing of the terror group Boko Haram, who have been making headlines the past couple of months.


But, that’s exactly what he has done; preemptively offering up an advance warning of this new threat. The fact that Taylor also choose to heat up the cold war, with the Russians using the Boko Haram terrorists as a proxy to launch a weapon of mass destruction attack on the United States and you’ve got to wonder what else Taylor has up his sleeve.

While Logan and the rest of the Taskforce team are used to playing the role of the hunter, this time around not only do they have to put a stop to the attack, but they also find themselves facing a challenge that has them squarely in the sights of a hunter. High entertainment at a blistering pace.

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