Days of Rage

May 26, 2014
When two members of Taskforce, the supersecret U.S. government antiterrorism agency, are killed in Bulgaria while tracking Nigerian terrorist Usman Akinbo, Pike Logan, who heads a Taskforce cover organization, takes over, in bestseller Taylor’s high-powered sixth outing for his resourceful hero (after The Polaris Protocol). A plot by Russian FSB leader Vladimir Malikov to use Akinbo ends up pitting Pike and company against Russians led by spy Yuri Gorshenko, but an Israeli outfit proves to be a wildcard in a chase that skips from Bulgaria, Istanbul, and Berlin to the ultimate target. Taylor is adept at combining past tragedies, like the terrorist attack on the 1972 Munich Olympics, with more recent developments, like the Snowden disclosures, and tracking the geopolitical changes in between. Throw in modern technology, gunfights, hand-to-hand combat, and a daring race to prevent a disaster that would make the Munich Olympics attack pale by comparison, and you have a thriller that really thrills. Agent: John Talbot, Talbot Fortune Agency.

Starred review from June 15, 2014
A Pike Logan thriller filled with heart-thumping action and insane heroics.In Munich in 1972, terrorists murder the entire Israeli team at the Summer Olympics. Echoes reverberate to the present day when a MOSSAD agent sniffs out intelligence in Bulgaria and Turkey. A nefarious Nigerian is up to no good. Two of Logan's Taskforce members die. The Russians have a mole in President Peyton Warren's administration. All this sets up the story of a terrorist plot to strike again in the spirit of the Munich attacks but far, far worse. The Taskforce is a top-secret unit approved by Warren to perform unconstitutional deeds for the greater good-that is, protecting the Constitution. Pike's given name is the biblical Nephilim, giving the beautiful and fearless lesbian Israeli agent Shoshana confidence that he can save the day. As if there could be any doubt. No one is more macho than Pike, who, when told he has no weapon, states: "Really? Look again. I am the weapon." A man like that needs constraints on his rage lest he leave a trail of corpses in his wake. Earlier in his career "I'd killed to release the pain," he says. Luckily, he works with team member Jennifer, who's tough and smart and comes with a conscience she shares with Pike. One of her talents is scaling walls, and wouldn't you know that when the need arises, she happens to have a grappling hook. But she instills a level of humanity in all the Logan tales that keeps them from being run-of-the-mill derring-do. The climactic event is action at its best. Pike just might have to fall for Shoshana to avert disaster. And then, when the story seems over, the last chapter quietly deals with a final piece of business.A fun, satisfying adventure.

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May 1, 2014
In the post-Snowden era, espionage becomes trickier. When the ultrasecret counterterrorism unit called Taskforce tracks a radical Islamist Nigerian in Europe, it finds itself a target. Two of its members are killed, and Pike Logan is after whoever is responsible. But first Taskforce must get a thumb drive with material about the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics, information that could incriminate the current U.S. director of National Intelligence and that MOSSAD agents also are after. As Americans and Israelis join forces, their common enemy is the Russian FSB, whose members are intent on doing damage to the U.S. by using the Nigerian, who has been armed with a dreadful weapon. Adding to the intrigue, Pike discovers a mole deep in the U.S. intelligence apparatus. In this sixth entry in the Pike Logan series, former Delta Force officer Taylor combines up-to-the-minute spy craft with musings about the morality of murder, even when justified, and shows that the latest gadgetry still can't replace human intuition and skill. Another exciting spy thriller from an author who knows the territory.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)