The Polaris Protocol

Starred review from November 4, 2013
Bestseller Taylor’s fifth Pike Logan thriller (after 2013’s The Widow’s Strike) takes all the energy of the previous installments and multiplies it by a force factor of 10. Pike and his girlfriend, Jennifer Cahill, are in Turkmenistan working on an assignment for Taskforce, the super-secret government antiterrorism agency, when Jennifer gets a phone message from her brother, Jack, who’s in El Paso, Tex., reporting on a story involving the Sinaloa drug cartel. Jack has recorded a conversation that seems to be not about drugs but about a far greater danger to U.S. security. Certain that Jack is in trouble, Jennifer persuades Pike to search for her brother. Taskforce joins in once our heroes discover a plot to sell a device known as the Polaris Protocol that can disrupt worldwide GPS software. A great premise, nonstop action, and one of the baddest villains in the genre—the assassin and torturer known as the Sicario—make this a winner. Agent: John Talbot, Talbot Fortune Agency.

December 15, 2013
Taylor's latest thriller starring Pike Logan. This time, America's enemies plot to subvert the Global Positioning System with the Polaris Protocol, a nefarious piece of computer code that threatens to wreak havoc with commercial transportation as well as America's ability to hit military targets with precision. Logan's Taskforce faces a couple of formidable adversaries, including the Ghost, an Arab terrorist who also appears in Enemy of Mine (2013), and the Sicario, a bloodthirsty Mexican assassin. Taskforce member Jennifer Cahill also must rescue her kidnapped brother, Jack, complicating her role in saving America. Here, as in other Pike Logan thrillers, America faces a potentially devastating threat; only the extralegal Taskforce can save the day, and that will happen only if Logan bends the rules. His semisecret girlfriend, Cahill (code name Koko), will continually need to prove she belongs on the team, which she does in impressive fashion. The Cold War may be long over, but the struggle between good and evil continues to provide fodder for nail-biting adventures. Admirers of the late Tom Clancy will enjoy this and other works in the series. Read them in any order.

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December 1, 2013
A reporter named Jack, researching a story involving drugs, stumbles upon a conspiracy in Taylor's latest thriller featuring Pike Logan and the special-ops team known as Taskforce. When Jack realizes the danger he's in, he places a phone call to his sister, Jennifer, right before he's snatched. Jennifer, another member of Taskforce and secretly sleeping with Logan, asks the team to help her rescue her brother. The conspiracy involves an attack on the government's high-powered GPS system, which runs everything from smartphone maps to aircraft landings. Meanwhile, Jennifer's romancing of Logan jeopardizes the unity and trust of the entire team. Taylor continues to tell exciting action stories with the authenticity of someone who knows the world of special ops. He also has the chops to create terrific characters whom readers will root for. This series just gets better and better.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)