Takedown (2006)

I've enjoyed author Brad Thor, and his larger than life action hero, Scott Harvath. Thor writes with authority on the exploits of this ex-Navy SEAL, and the thankless job he does as the President's right hand man in singlehandedly cleaning up messes that no one else wants to even get involved with. If you've never read this series, start at the beginning, and work your way through as you're in for a treat. Each of the novels stands as a global thriller.

Takedown is the followup novel to Blowback. By the fifth book of a series, things often get kind of formulaic. Fortunately, this is not the case here, and Takedown stands as well as any novel in this series, maybe better. This novel concerns itself with a post-9/11 doomsday plot that seems so plausible, it's kind of scary.

A group of terrorists coordinate an attack on Manhattan, on July 4th no less. At first it seems that they are trying to recover a prisoner that the US is holding in NYC, and they are well organized and will stop at nothing to recover him. This attack cuts off Manhattan from the outside world when the bridges and tunnels are all under fire. New York's finest are also scattered, and tied up in other boroughs.

Harvath happens to be in the city, and after rounding up some military buddies starts the chase, although he's not even sure of whom at first. In the middle of this, a secret government program is stumbled upon which only deepens the intrigue of this. There are also several NY locations that will be familiar to those of us that live around here. (The encounter with the mounted policeman in Central Park is a classic.)

My one criticism of Takedown is that with only a few pages to go, too much additional plot unfolds. Just when all the loose ends are tied up, a mere three pages later, the reader is left with another cliffhanger. I was pleased to figure out that the next novel in the series, The First Commandment is already out, so I won't be hanging for too long.

Overall Grade: A

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Reviewed by Jonas