Operator Down by Brad Taylor / Review by G. Robert Frazier
Operator Down (Pike Logan Book 12)
By Brad Taylor
Dutton
$27.00
ISBN 978-1101984819
Publication Date: January 9, 2018
An American arms dealer trying to move nuclear weapons components and a planned coup in a small South African country intersect in Brad Taylor’s newest thriller, Operator Down. But it’s the kidnapping of former Israeli agent Aaron Bergman that really ups the ante for Taskforce member Pike Logan and company.
Logan, as usual, is calm, cool, and calculating regardless of the circumstances and the odds against him. He takes great care in planning each action and subsequent reaction. What he can’t plan for, however, is the desperate, and at times reckless, actions of Aaron’s partner, Shoshana, who is hell-bent to rescue him, consequences be damned.
If Logan can’t control her temper, the whole mission and Aaron’s life itself could be at risk.
Taylor, who is a retired Special Forces operative, draws on his wealth of firsthand U.S. Army experience to weave another fast-paced, action-packed entry in the Pike Logan series. The author loads up the reader on plenty of Army jargon, technical know-how, and intelligence agency acronyms, but always manages to keep the plot moving. Aaron’s plight and Shoshana’s desperation add an emotional weight to the novel like few other books in the series.
Of course, there’s never any doubt about the outcome – we know Logan’s team will prevent the nuclear sale, we figure they’ll settle the coup one way or another, and we expect him to save Aaron, who has become one of the series’ most popular characters. But it’s fun getting there all the same.
That’s a credit to Taylor’s ability to craft an entertaining page-turner to keep you up at night -- though it wouldn’t hurt to throw in a few serious setbacks once in a while. Oh, well, maybe next time.
When he’s not working on his own novel or screenplays, G. Robert Frazier writes about other writers and their works on his blog and other sites such as BookPage and BloggingforBooks. He has served as a script reader for both the Austin Film Festival and Nashville Film Festival screenwriting competitions and is a member of the Tennessee Screenwriting Association. He used to write and edit stories for several newspapers in the Nashville area and he once won a flash fiction contest in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, so there’s that.