One Rough Man (Pike Logan, #1) in SSG: Spy/Spec-Ops Group

May 03, 2013 Samuel rated it liked it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Written by former Delta Force operator Brad Taylor who spent 21 years hunting bad men down for the US military, the Pike Logan thrillers have won numerous accolades from cynical book critics and fans alike. “One Rough Man” is the first book in the series. At the start, we’re introduced to “Pike” Logan, one of the lead agents of a government “Taskforce”. Like the Orion Team from the Mitch Rapp saga, only larger and with superior resources, the “Taskforce” is used to eliminate Islamist terrorists Written by former Delta Force operator Brad Taylor who spent 21 years hunting bad men down for the US military, the Pike Logan thrillers have won numerous accolades from cynical book critics and fans alike. “One Rough Man” is the first book in the series. At the start, we’re introduced to “Pike” Logan, one of the lead agents of a government “Taskforce”. Like the Orion Team from the Mitch Rapp saga, only larger and with superior resources, the “Taskforce” is used to eliminate Islamist terrorists and other undesirables while leaping over pesky red tape.

The novel kicks off with a kidnapping in Tbilisi Georgia where the Taskforce team led by Pike make Al Qaeda operative, shopping for nuclear material disappear off the face of the earth. At the same time back in the States, Pike’s wife is preparing for their daughter’s birthday when she, a family friend and the daughter are brutally murdered by two mysterious men. Pike’s devastated, leaves the “Taskforce” and sinks into the embrace of depression and alcohol as a result of this trauma. One day, while he’s attempting to drink himself to death, he meets a graduate student named Jennifer Cahill, gets beaten up in a bar fight and ends up killing two employees of a wealthy human smuggler to protect her. Learning that the smuggler has kidnapped her archaeologist uncle and is looking for a very precious package, Pike and Jennifer fly down to Guatemala and get caught up in a series of unfortunate events. What starts out as a simple mission to stay alive quickly turns into a continent hopping race to stop the mother of all suicide bombings with a sadistic twist.

Plot wise “One Rough Man” is very good if a little strange. While officially a military thriller, in the Guatemala section of the book, there are some shades of science fiction and Indiana Jones style adventure. But soon, it turns into a modern day conspiracy thriller with Pike and Jennifer hunting two Islamist terrorists across Europe while at the same time trying to evade a vile team of contract killers led by the man who thoroughly ruined Pike’s life. The action scenes are very realistic but not melodramatic like in the Dewey Andreas Series, a particular standout being Pike and Jennifer elegantly escape from the authorities at Atlanta airport. The technology and tradecraft in the novel has an authentic ring, from the tips Pike gives to the reader before pulling off a “one man army” and an awesome little gadget known as the “Remington ball”. He also tries to break some of the misconceptions about America’s counter terrorists showing that their job is far more complex with severe repercussions and psychological costs if things go wrong

But it’s not the threat, technology or plot which is the star of “One Rough Man”, those take a back seat. Instead, it’s the characters and their interactions which each other which make “One Rough Man” a good book. Surprisingly for a debt military thriller, a genre not known for three dimensional protagonists, Brad Taylor has created some of the most complex protagonists to grace the genre to date. Take Pike for example who despite being a badass, is played realistically, unlike the 2-d cardboard cut-outs in other novels. Starting as an extremely formidable if not slightly arrogant operative, fate decides to kick him in the face and throw him down a deep dark hole. Suffering guilt, depression and self-doubt, his journey of redemption from a washed up has-been to the person he used to be, is simply fantastic to watch. But even at his psychological worst, he’s still knowledgeable and ruthless enough to destroy the best laid plans of the forces trying to kill him, leaving many bodies in his wake. His companion Jennifer Cahill is also great. She’s “the audience surrogate”, representing us humble civilians who do not have the training or experience Pike has. Initially you may grate at how she moans and wines about the former soldier who’s belatedly offered to help her get her uncle back. However, after a nightmarish experience, she wises up to the situation, learns from Pike and performs extremely admirably under the circumstances. Pike’s sometime humorous observations, especially his darkly deadpan elimination of one of the antagonists and his banter with Jennifer are a treat to watch. The villains are also very devious, and put up quite a fight against the main characters, a standout being Lucas Kane, the contract killer hunting Pike at the behest of a corrupt Taskforce leader. He’s a sociopath but an extremely dangerous one who happily tortures and shoots his way through multiple innocents just to nail Pike.

Despite the excellent research, stellar plot and fantastic character development, I had 2 problems with the book. Firstly, the main threat of the novel, the suicide bombing with a destructive twist may not seem realistic to some of you. Read to find out why. Secondly the plot threads, along with Pike and Jennifer take a while to come together and initially, early on in the book its a bit jarring, waiting for them to connect as they seem to rely on coincidences. But overall, Brad Taylor’s One Rough Man is a good start to a terrific thriller series. Taylor knows his strengths and plays them well, creating a lovely cocktail of political backstabbing, gunfire, fistfights and two protagonists who aren’t 2-D shooting targets but people who you’ll laugh, cry and cheer with throughout their troubles. In the next Review, I’ll talk about the second book in the series, All Necessary Force, in which Taylor blows the roof off in quality terms, and crafts a story packed with sometimes jaw dropping surprises. ...more

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Jul 24, 2015 Niles rated it it was amazing

An outstanding debut novel, Brad Taylor draws on his experience as a Delta Force commander to deliver an action-packed thriller. The realism and attention to detail makes this a must read for fans of Vince Flynn and Brad Thor. Pike Logan is a flawed hero who I found myself rooting for time and time again.

Authorized by the President, the Taskforce was formed to operate outside the law and without sanction from congressional oversight in order to deal with the increasing presence of terrorists. Pi An outstanding debut novel, Brad Taylor draws on his experience as a Delta Force commander to deliver an action-packed thriller. The realism and attention to detail makes this a must read for fans of Vince Flynn and Brad Thor. Pike Logan is a flawed hero who I found myself rooting for time and time again.

Authorized by the President, the Taskforce was formed to operate outside the law and without sanction from congressional oversight in order to deal with the increasing presence of terrorists. Pike Logan was the best of the best, and as team leader never failed to complete a mission successfully. At his best when the plans started to break down, Pike was known for his quick thinking and decisive action. Finally succumbing to his wife's repeated requests to retire from his job, Pike was on his last mission when tragedy struck his family. Unable to deal with the guilt of being away when his family needed him most, Pike went on a downward spiral and sought solace in the bottom of a bottle.

Meanwhile, Professor John Cahill was in the Guatemalan jungle searching for his mythical Temple of the Priests. When his guides refused to go any further into the jungle, two young natives seeking treasure stole his GPS and found the Temple. They also found a white powder which quickly killed one of the boys while the other made it back to tell the story. Cahill, ever cautious, embedded the GPS coordinates in some music mp3 files and e-mailed them to his niece Jennifer, who was a student at the College of Charleston. He then deleted all information from his laptop and GPS.

Miguel, who was a very successful smuggler, was in negotiations with two Arabs to smuggle certain items into the United States when the young boy from the jungle told the tale of finding the Temple and the ensuing death of his friend from the mysterious white powder. Feigning ignorance of the Spanish language, the two Arab terrorists became interested in the powder as a source for a WMD. Miguel, also known as "Machete," was more interested in the treasure and potential wealth it may bring. Machete ordered his henchmen to pick up Professor Cahill in hopes of finding the location of the Temple. Cahill told Machete that he had FedExed the GPS to his niece in Charleston, South Carolina. Professor Cahill died as Machete was torturing him to find out additional information about the GPS. The two terrorists found the key to the embedded mp3 files on a thumb drive amid Cahill's possessions and were able to obtain the deadly powder.

Machete sent a team to Charleston to retrieve the GPS from Jennifer and as luck would have it, Pike was able to thwart the attack and kill the mobsters. Pike did not want to be looking over his shoulder from the Machete's agents for the rest of his life, so he agreed to go to Guatemala and deliver the non-existent GPS. Jennifer went with Pike and they formed a somewhat tenuous and unlikely partnership. It was in Guatemala that Pike and Jennifer learned of the terrorist's possession of the WMD and they decided they had to stop the attack in order to prevent widespread death and panic.

In Washington DC, a member of the government also learned of the terrorist's intentions and decided to delete all known references to the attack in order for him to play the part of hero and savior, thus catapulting him to a higher position in the government. He wanted no loose ends and ordered Pike and Jennifer to be killed. Therefore the dynamic duo found themselves chasing the terrorists and dodging multiple assassination attempts.

This was a very good debut novel with an interesting plot and in depth knowledge of special forces operations. If you enjoy action packed novels as I do, then this is the book for you. I look forward to reading the future adventures of Pike Logan and Jennifer Cahill. ...more

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