Takedown by Brad Thor
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

‘Takedown’ is the best of the six Brad Thor novels I’ve read so far. It’s more than a bit comic booky and I could have seen this as a film with Ray Harryhausen special effects. Reality is handled fast and loose.

The story is bad guys vs good guys. The bad guys are mighty ambitious and accomplish their goals. Though, how they pull off such an extensive set of actions is not explained and I’m not sure how a writer would without adding another thousand pages.

Setting that aside as being the most comic booky, I can better accept the activity involving the good guy and various government staff working to figure out and go after the bad guys. That is, if you accept nearly the entire are of Manhattan void of people. As good guys chase bad guys, there is an unreal lack of obstacles in the way, considering what the bad guys do. There is also an unreal set of circumstances as to where secret areas are and how these are hidden.

Despite the fantasy the story is a rollicking good time of death and mayhem. Harvath, as usual, makes a great hero aided by a group of fellow soldiers that go after the bad guys. Thor does a great job layering the story as all sorts of things happen simultaneously and nothing goes as planned for anyone. Lots of dead ends, surprises, secret bad guys and an enormous amount of gunfire.

The characters are mostly well written, though some were hard to figure out or care about. The setting, critical to the story, is written loosely. Best to know a bunch about New York City before reading.

Bottom line: I recommend this book. 6 out of ten points.

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