Left for Dead

Eric Steele #4

by Sean Parnell

Special Operative Eric Steele battles a renegade group of bioterrorists armed with a devastating virus in the fourth pulse-pounding military thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Outlaw Platoon. 

On a remote mountaintop in western China, Doctor Ai Liang is about to risk everything and defy the Chinese Communist Party. She and her team have created a terrifying new coronavirus, even more deadly than COVID-19, called C-62 that is capable of killing a person in twenty minutes. But her conscience tells her she must destroy the deadly bioweapon before it can bring devastation to millions. The doctor’s heroic plans are interrupted when mysterious commandos swarm the lab, kill everyone in sight, and take off with the C-62 virus.

Meanwhile, Eric Steele is on a cleanup mission, about to exact revenge on the group responsible for killing numerous alphas and forcing the Program to disband. When justice is served, Steele can turn his thoughts to other pressing matters—namely his long lost father and his estranged girlfriend, Meg Harden.

But when news of CCP plans to attack US forces reach the United States, the President calls for the revival of the Program to deal with this new threat. Steele is back in action, and soon learns that the supposed CCP attack is related to a much more complex plot involving a fanatical Chinese Imperialist group—and the stolen C-62 bioweapon. It’s up to Steele and his team to find out who the real threat is and stop them before they can unleash another pandemic in the form of the deadly C-62 virus on the entire world.

Genres: Fiction, Thriller, Audiobook, Spy Thriller, Military Thriller, Terrorism, Mystery Thriller

400 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 7, 2021

Reviews

[Abibliofob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eric Steele is called back to the reopened "Program" and there is some cleanup needed. Left For Dead by Sean Parnell is the latest thrilling and suspense filled ride with this clandestine hero. This series is really great and I really hope there will be a couple of more books in the future because there is so much I want to know.

[Kristine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good entry in the Eric Steele saga.

This time we have The Program being restarted when there is information coming to light about possible a China / Taiwanese conflict. Covid 19 is the jumping off point for further bio weapon development so there are true "from the headlines" content in this one.

We do get to see more development with Eric and his father and there is also news with on again off again girlfriend Meg.

The only other comment I have is that the ending seemed very rushed. I understand that it is leaving the ending open to continue on in the next book, but we never really get any answers about what happened with Meg (we get the result, but not what happened) and the reader is basically left hanging with news regarding the 2 men.

[Jeffrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Parnell's fourth thriller with Eric Steele is just not as exciting as his last story, although I may be jaded because he lets his inner politics out, by having Eric Steele beat up a bunch of "antifa" who are desecrating a war memorial, which of course is applauded by other characters and later of course claims that the Covid virus was a Chinese lab experiment that went escaped the lab. There was one other incident but I am blanking on it.

But he also left the novel on a huge cliff hanger - hate those, and the action seems a little less intense than book 3.

So this one was good but not as intense and a little too subjective for me.

[Marc · Rating 3 out of 5]

First time reader of this author. I read a lot of Tom Clancy, Mark Greaney and similar authors. Good story overall but the author needs to keep his misinformed right wing views out of his fiction; ironic those views are based on fiction.

[Adriana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I sat down to read a few pages before going to sleep and could not look up until I'd turned the last page. It's a somewhat typical story for the genre, but the elements that make it unique are very creative and definitely stand out from the pack. It's also #4 in the series but I had no issue whatsoever with following the who/what/where.
The writing is phenomenal. The pacing flows so smoothly that you barely notice you're devouring the story. Parnell pulls you in so deeply that you just want to know what happens next with the plot and the characters.
This brings me to my only (minimal) complaint, which is that there are moments where there are just too many characters taking up space. I just wanted to know what happened next in the mains tory and we kept veering off with people who had no bearing on that. It was still good content, but the action was so good that I just wanted to stick with that part of the story.
Overall, I cannot wait to read what happens next (be warned that there's a massive cliffhanger), and I'm for sure hunting up the previous volumes.

Very happy thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for the early read!

[Jane · Rating 1 out of 5]

too much alt-right nuttiness.

[Kathleen Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. I gotta admit- I didn't have high hopes for this but boy was I wrong. This is a fast paced engaging and entertaining thriller with good guys (and women), bad guys, conspiracies, global threats, and lots and lots of action. This starts with a bang when a Chinese bioweapon researc facility is attacked and the only survivor, the lead scientist, finds herself sheltered by Mongolian nomads. Eric Steele, a member of the Program, a secret special ops organization which has been disbanded, is called back into action when a Chinese asset of the USG who was believed dead reaches out to the White House to claim that he's got info on a Chinese plan against the US. Then there's the ghost ship in Africa. Steele and company put the Program back together and set off to save the world. There's humor, there's inside the Beltway stuff, there's pathos, there are two big surprises for Steele. Parnell has a way of writing characters that brings them alive quickly. if some of this is over the top (there's a lot of violence), well, it never gets too cartoonish or graphic. I'd only read one of the books but that didn't hinder my enjoyment of this one so feel free to read it as a standalone. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. It's a page turner (I didn't want to put it down) that's hard to review without spoilers but know that this begs for another installment.

[Bobbi Wagner · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not my first book by this author but ranks up there as one of my favorites yet by this author. I enjoyed being pulled into the story by the characters. I found this book to be fast paced and full of action. This is a well written story where the characters are not only relateable but also bring the story to life. I enjoy watching the growth of the plot throughout this story. The twists and turns had me sitting on the edge of my seat just waiting to see what would happen next. This is a story about Eric Steele and his team. The are on a mission of finding and stopping a group before the unleash a deadly virus. I really enjoyed what Steele and the others brought to the story. They made it fun, easy and entertaining to read. I highly recommend this book.

[Alex Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always have good, clean (a tad bloody, I grant you) fun in Parnell’s Worlds. Simple, two-toned worlds inhabited by dangerously competent & irascible men who live in vertiginous and violent landscapes, love their country, do their duty and live by a code that they consider honourable. These men, just guys who do bad things to bad people.

Worlds where the women these men bed are strong, limber, curvaceous Lara Croft/Charlize Theron/Scarlett Johansson babes who tumble you hard in the sack but will have your six in a fix.

4th (and in my opinion) best of the epic Eric Steele series of non-stop action novels, with a bit more time spent on characterisation in this one.

Is this really going to be the final instalment of this series?

Sean, say it ain’t so!

[Pop · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a Goodreads Giveaway Hard Back book. It arrived shortly after the Giveaway ended and I was actually surprised at its arrival. I had no idea that I had won the book. The book started out a little on the slow side but boy howdy that didn't last long. As one Goodreads reviewer said "a fast paced, engaging and entertaining thriller with good guys (and women), bad guys, conspiracies, global threats, and lots and lots of action". Couldn't have said it better. I now will have to go looking for the first three books in this series. I couldn't help but noticing that the main character was name "Eric" and sometimes (or at least once) was called Matthew. Made me think Mr. Parnell gave his main character the name(s) after the famous Matt Helm in Donald Hamilton's many thrillers of bad guys, good guys (and women), conspiracies', global threats, etc. during the James Bond era. Matt Helm's code name was "Eric". And how I love those books and so I say I guess "I loved this book by Parnell".

It's very strange though that just within an hour or so after I finished this book I saw on NEWSMAX that there is actually real tensions growing between the US and China over Taiwan. Coincidence? Don't know but it was just "Strange". Covid too! Who would have thought!

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was slightly better than the third book and was very topical dealing with a lab in China working on a weaponizing new variation of the COVID strain, which we know is happening today. It's interesting that this was published in 2021 when we were still being told that Covid-19 was not man-made and came from a bat eaten at a wet market. Now, even the Government has admitted that it was released, either accidentally or intentionally, from a Chinese bio lab.
This book finally closes Eric Steele's long running search for his father, which was great. I really enjoyed the rebuilding of the Program, recruiting new members and bringing in more characters into the story. The first book largely only dealt with Steele and his handler, Demo. Now we get more character development on other Alphas and Support personnel which made the later books more interesting.
Sadly, with no new book on the horizon since 2021 which is peculiar, this book leaves us with a massive cliffhanger leaving the survival of our hero in doubt. A really shocking and surprising ending. I hope Parnell will release a new book, but since it's been years now, it's not looking good.

[Todd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another enjoyable Eric Steele book, but it ends on kind of a cliffhanger and it's been 3 years since this book was released and no word yet on another

[Britt · Rating 3 out of 5]

“You’re too, shall we say ...pretty. Grow an unruly beard, get yourself a pair of brown contact lenses and a scar.”

There’s a lot going on in Special Op Eric Steele’s life. He’s busy with work, misses his ex and he hasn’t seen his father, who was abandoned by his country, for years. So a deadly new bioterrorism weapon called the C-62 virus, created by the Chinese Communist Party, that can kill someone in 20 mins, is not showing up at the best of times.

This is a full on action packed book. It is the 4th in the series but honestly you do not need to read 1 through 3 to understand what is going on. The author does a good job catching the reader up on what is happening and explaining things as the story goes on. I really enjoyed most of the characters in this book and being able to switch to different points of view is done very well with each chapter.

The story flows wonderfully in the beginning, making me not want to put it down until closer to the end. A lot of things happened very quickly in part three of the book, which became a little boring for me compared to the first two parts. There are times where there’s too many characters together at once that was hard at times to figure out who was talking or where the story was going. I also didn’t really care for the ending, but that’s just a personal preference and could be due to not reading the first 3 books.

Thank you to Harper Collins and NetGalley for the ARC!

[Jean Kolinofsky · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Program, a secret special operations unit, had been destroyed but President Rockland has resurrected the Program when threats of a war with China arise. Toqui 13 is a secret facility near the border with Mongolia that has been developing a bio-weapon. When the facility is destroyed and the personnel are murdered the head of the facility escapes and is rescued by a Mongolian trader. Word is sent to a monk who has a connection to an American agent and President Rockland calls on Eric Steele and his fellow agents to stage a rescue mission.

Zaifeng, a descendant of China’s last emperor, has set in motion a plan to initiate a war between the US and China. As the head of the Swords of Qing he wants the defeat of the communist government in order to present himself as the new emperor. Using the bio-weapon that his followers stole from Toqui 13, he holds a test run on a freighter near Madagascar. A loner named Wheelwright is brought into the investigation of the freighter incident. Wheelwright has a surprising connection to Eric Steele and the crisis in Asia brings them together in an effort to stop the Swords of Qing.

Eric Steele’s father was once a member of the Program before he disappeared during a mission in Russia. While Eric has searched for his father, he has also felt anger for being abandoned by a father who was always away on a mission. Now he has discovered that his former lover Meg is pregnant with his child. Meg was once a member of the Program and knows of the dangers and absences involved, but Steele is determined not to make the same mistakes as his father. This time, however, he is up against a formidable enemy.

Sean Parnell’s Left For Dead is a thriller that moves at a rapid pace. While he explains the equipment and training required for the Program agents, he keeps his descriptions brief and does not get bogged down in details. This makes it an exciting story that will appeal to fans of Brad Thor and Brad Taylor. I would like to thank NetGalley and William Morrow/Custom House Publishers for making this book available for my review.

[Jean Kolinofsky · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Program, a secret special operations unit, had been destroyed but President Rockland has resurrected the Program when threats of a war with China arise. Toqui 13 is a secret facility near the border with Mongolia that has been developing a bio-weapon. When the facility is destroyed and the personnel are murdered the head of the facility escapes and is rescued by a Mongolian trader. Word is sent to a monk who has a connection to an American agent and President Rockland calls on Eric Steele and his fellow agents to stage a rescue mission.

Zaifeng, a descendant of China’s last emperor, has set in motion a plan to initiate a war between the US and China. As the head of the Swords of Qing he wants the defeat of the communist government in order to present himself as the new emperor. Using the bio-weapon that his followers stole from Toqui 13, he holds a test run on a freighter near Madagascar. A loner named Wheelwright is brought into the investigation of the freighter incident. Wheelwright has a surprising connection to Eric Steele and the crisis in Asia brings them together in an effort to stop the Swords of Qing.

Eric Steele’s father was once a member of the Program before he disappeared during a mission in Russia. While Eric has searched for his father, he has also felt anger for being abandoned by a father who was always away on a mission. Now he has discovered that his former lover Meg is pregnant with his child. Meg was once a member of the Program and knows of the dangers and absences involved, but Steele is determined not to make the same mistakes as his father. This time, however, he is up against a formidable enemy.

Sean Parnell’s Left For Dead is a thriller that moves at a rapid pace. While he explains the equipment and training required for the Program agents, he keeps his descriptions brief and does not get bogged down in details. This makes it an exciting story that will appeal to fans of Brad Thor and Brad Taylor. I would like to thank NetGalley and William Morrow/Custom House Publishers for making this book available for my review.

[SOS · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book isn’t the kind of book I usually read, but I admit that I enjoyed it. It’s a well written story about a Black Ops program for the US government, and the operatives and support staff involved in that program. It does a very good job of humanizing those operatives.

Eric Steele is the main character. He’s well defined and likable, even believable most of the time. He’s a living, breathing super hero with flaws, but he strives to overcome them.

What I didn’t like bout the book is the never ending mention of governmental acronyms, jargon, or the overdone specifics for myriad types of weaponry. It was a veritable alphabet soup, and even thought the book sometimes explained what the acronyms represented and what the jargon meant the first time they were mentioned, it was almost impossible to remember them many chapters later. There were far too many for anyone not seriously involved in military operations to keep track of. At some point, I gave up on trying to keep track of them all and just ignored them, skipping over the parts where they were detailed. I also didn’t like the attempts to work Covid-19 into the story. The mentions of the disease seemed out of place as no one is ill, no one is taking any form of precaution against the virus. It would have been much better to have left the virus out of the book. It didn’t do anything to forward the story or make it more real.

Overall, this wasn’t a bad book. It’s a quick read, and it does contain a fair amount of violence. It also doesn’t clearly tie up the status of two of the main characters, leaving a bit of a cliffhanger. This is book four (4) in a series, with more to follow, but it’s the first in the series that I’ve read. It did fine as a stand alone. Do know that there’s also a bit of romance mixed in with the military operations.

I “won” the right to receive an advanced reader copy of this book from Netgalley in a contest held by the publisher. I thank them and all involved for sharing the book, but all opinions in this review reflect my true and honest reactions to reading the book.

[Peter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although the premise and plot were interesting, the writing was poor - Style, vocabulary and character. The author seemed to feel the need to fill every situation and location with unnecessary detail description that added nothing to the story. I was reminded of the old SNL skit “Californians” where they offer minute detail of travel directions - except these were worse. I eventually just skipped entire pages to try and not loose the story. The use of anagrams for military hardware were extensive and even if I had understood them added nothing to the story and - spoiler alert towards the end of the story they segue (not really segue just jump out on the story) to his girlfriend having difficulty as her pregnancy nears term. What was the difficulty? Why? Was it relevant to the story? Nope. It is never resolved or related to the overall story of the protagonist Steele. Don’t understand how this got over 4 stars on Amazon

[Douglas Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

This would have been a 5 star from me if there was just a hint of another book coming after.
All 4 books in this series are fast paced with hardly a chance to put them down til finished.
Eric Steele finds out Meg is having their baby, he meets his long estranged father on a mission, and the story ends with not a hint of continuation.
All Parnell lets us know is that after a mission to thwart a deadly virus attack on an American aircraft carrier and the strike team dead on the island, except Eric and his father Hank, a rescue may or may not have been out in place. They were told to stand down on the rescue, but when has that ever led to someone not going rogue and doing it anyways.
Perhaps with the meeting of Steele’s mother, Meg and baby those final words of “I know how to raise good men” is the last of the series.
I sure hope not. This series could go on and on, and I’ll buy every book. I want a continuation!

[Max · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another excellent entry in this series. Eric Steele, super soldier, saves the day as he prevents the detonation of a powerful biological weapon in the hands of an insurgent Chinese group. While the plot is fairly standard for this genre, as is the technical information on arms and military gear and non-stop action, what sets this book above most of the others is several things. First, Eric Steele is a flawed man and author Parnell gives the character authentic depth. Second, the teasing banter between all the characters is great. Third, the secondary characters have meaningful roles and interesting things to say. Fourth, Sean Parnell has a great writing style, both for battle scenes and Steele's personal interactions with his family and girlfriend.

[Brandon Postema · Rating 1 out of 5]

What could have been a good book was overridden by political mentions and crap in the book that didnt need to be there. Took a weird take on COVID-19, and just wasn't what I would want in a book to read for fun. Also, his background as a wife beater takes some fun out of them as well. Read it to finish the story, but overall didn't seem to connect cleanly to the other books, especially when the cliffhangers from the 3rd book didn't cleanly connect to this one. Kept feeling like I missed a book in-between. If the political stuff and wife beating weren't a factor, this would have been a 4/5 probably.

[Tom Foster · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this while on vacation and while a military thriller does not normally appeal to me I found the story entertaining and well done. The story feels like it has a specific target audience, pun intended, because it has an alphabet soup of government organizations in the fast-moving plot and there is a lot of military weapon nomenclature throughout the book that is only meaningful to those having that kind of background. There is occasional digression into political comments that seem out of place. If the author could eliminate those issues and add more character development the appeal of his books could widen.

[Kim Bakos · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you like high-octane, non-stop action military thrillers, this is the perfect book!
I've never read this author or the other books in this series, but he had me hooked from the very beginning. Although much of the military stuff, such as the names of various weapons, was way over my head, I still loved this story. The fact that I hadn't read other Eric Steele stories didn't hinder my ability to jump right into the lives of the characters and pick up where their story had left off.
The ending is a real cliffhanger - can't wait to see what happens next.

[Bob Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

For the first third of the book I was convinced the series had "jumped the shark". Too many attempts of humor, too many native ads, and the absence of any serious plot (compared to the prior books, anyway) convinced me that Steele and Parnell were over. About midway through the book, a plot is discovered and the Steele character from the previous books reappears. Until the end, Steele is performing his usual exploits and your story is back on familiar grounds, until the end. The end is totally unexpected and is the thing that might make me read number five

[SP · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the book overall, but there are several things that just bugged me. Parts of the book are just really juvenile and border on ridiculous. There was a mistake at the very beginning of the book that I found annoying - Chang Wu becomes Wang Chu. That error should have been caught in editing. I also didn’t care for the ending. I understand the need to set up the next book but you can have an ending to the current story and set up the next book.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 - Love me a good Sean Parnell book and this one would have been a 4 if not for the ending. I feel like you can have a "cliffhanger" ending while still having a more definitive ending to a novel. This just felt like he decided to take a break in writing the story. Much like I detest part 1 and part 2 episodes in tv series that span the break between seasons. Just my personal feelings. Otherwise I did enjoy this "chapter" in Eric Steele's story.

[Martha · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book follows Eric Steele is his efforts to make the world better. Doctor Ai Liang and her team have created a coronavirus called C-62 that is so strong it can kill a person in under an hour. She realizes the good and harm of this C-62 and realizes it must be destroyed. The book is fast-paced as the travels take us to many countries of the world. We also see many conflicts from every angle.

[James Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I use ratings to decide which books I am going to buy, and I recently decided I am partially responsible for inflating the ratings on books. Either they were 5 star or 1 star. I decided to use the star rating more objectively as follows:

★★★★★ Great book! Can’t wait to read it again (and I will).
★★★★☆ Good book. I am glad I read this.
★★★☆☆ OK book. Nothing special but not bad.
★★☆☆☆ Not good. Why did I waste my time?
★☆☆☆☆ Lousy. I didn’t finish.

[Julie Pint · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love the Eric Steele books! Mr Parnell uses his military expertise to bring him to life. The adventures and patriotism of Seven make the adventure and danger tasks feel very realistic. I am a bit creeped out by how similar so many of the pieces of the story are close to current world events. Can’t wait for the next installment of Eric Steele family.

[Lester Lesoine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Left wanting the next novel now

From the 1st page to the last, mr. Parnell effortlessly guides you on another eric steele adventure. There are so many parallels that the story could go from fiction to fact given the political climate of today. The only disappointment that I have is the book is over and I have to wait (albeit) impatiently)

[Meredith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is written with great detail and descriptions. It made it really easy for me to mentally visualize the story as I was reading. The plot was great and really kept me engaged. However, there were quite a bit of things I had to look up/search for online in order to understand the story better. Because of that, I'm giving this book four stars instead of five.