“Operator Down” by Brad Taylor - The Nuclear Anti-Democracy Party

Brad Taylor has delivered excitement in spades time and time again with his spy thrillers, and in Operator Down he returns to the fore, once again thrusting the former special forces officer Logan Pike into the heart of mayhem.

In his search for a Mossad agent, Pike stumbles into something much more sinister involving nuclear weapon sales and a giant conspiracy to topple a democratic African country.

Brad Taylor Shows his Espionage Chops

Ever since Ian Fleming's James Bond rocked the world through countless novels and movies, the idea of a super-spy has become immensely popular all around the world. After all, what could more exhilarating than a man with all the brains, brawn and charm the world could afford?

As it turned out over the years, many things can be more exciting as the archetype begins to seem more and more like a relic of the past. It takes a certain amount of skill and know-how to create an engaging super-spy figure these days, and I have to say while many authors have tried, not too many have can claim to have known the success Brad Taylor has.

Penning multiple series with their own special agents, Taylor has given his all to the thriller espionage genre and still going strong as ever with his latest Pike Logan novel titled Operator Down.

An ex-member of the special forces, Pike Logan is asked to help with a very simple mission: to ascertain the true identity and intentions of a merchant in the Israeli diamond exchange.

Unbeknownst to Pike and his team, a former leader of an elite Mossad action team was tasked to execute the operation as a contractor... but now he has disappeared without a trace. As they try and search for the missing operative, they also track an American arms dealer in Tel-Aviv trying to sell nuclear weapon components to the highest bidder.

Where there's nuclear armament, there is always some grandiose scheme involved, and this case is no different. Pike gets wind of a planned military coup to topple a democratic African country, undoubtedly with little regard for human life.

The web of deceit runs deep through both the American and Israeli intelligence services, forcing Pike to choose a side in a battle where nothing was ever clear.

Exotic Adventures for a Retired Spy

Even though Logan Pike might be officially retired, I believe we readers of the genre know this only makes the man much more dangerous and interesting than his counterparts still on the force.

Pike has proven himself time and time again to be a capable protagonist to carry a story, and this time he does with the help of a few other people whose stories are told in parallel to the main one.

We consistently jump from one locale to the next, the action taking us primarily through Israel and Africa. Off the top of my head, I cannot think of a single moment where boredom is even possible.

While Taylor's novels tend to be filled with action, it feels like he upped the ante in this one by a notch or two; there is literally always something exciting happening or about to happen, and the stakes only keep on getting higher.

In this type of action-packed novel multiple storylines are generally quite difficult to juggle for it is easy to lose oneself in all the different concurrent events.

Taylor's work deftly manages to avoid this pitfall as each of the plots feels simple and straightforward enough to keep track of without putting in too much effort.

That is not the say the story itself lacks complexity, but rather it's delivered in an extremely receivable and digestible manner, and I believe the author's penmanship is to be commended for that.

As a matter of fact, I'd say the plots build on top of each other rather well since we end up having more knowledge than the characters themselves and can try to put together various pieces of the puzzle.

It's always fun and engaging trying to predict how the different storylines will end up converging at the end, and rest assured they do so as smoothly as you'd expect from Taylor.

The Complexity of Taking Over a Country

Examining the plot itself as a whole, it becomes quite apparent Brad Taylor sought to weave a complex web of international intrigue involving rebel groups, military dissidents, governmental spy communities, off-the-book agents, and virtually everything you're bound to find in a solid espionage thriller.

I am glad to say for the most part, Taylor succeeds in creating an intriguing thread which keeps on twisting and turning into unexpected directions every few steps of the way.

Some of the so-called twists did feel a bit cheesy and predictable, but for the most part they accomplished their mission of keeping me guessing.

I believe part of the reason this multi-layered story works well is the author's ability to seamlessly mesh one plot point with the next with great clarity, slowly building the complete big picture by drawing in all the pieces.

Expectantly enough, a plot with so many points is bound to have many characters carrying it through, and Taylor doesn't disappoint in that aspect, even finding the time to develop some of them amidst all of the action.

While in my personal opinion the dynamic between Pike and Jennifer is growing somewhat tiresome, the rest of the cast excelled at their roles. The various “good” characters we meet all have a bit of life and variety to them, just enough to be distinguished from their cookie-cutter archetypes.

We buy into their stories without questioning them or having to suspend our disbelief, which is harder said than done when you're writing about people with essentially superhuman capabilities. The villains are predictably horrible and it didn't take me long to be completely against them.

While I would have enjoyed to see them developed beyond the simplistic “bad guys” portrayal, I understand it might not have had its place in this book and hurt the pacing.

The Final Verdict

All in all, Operator Down by Brad Taylor is yet another solid addition to the author's extensive collection of espionage thriller works, ranking amongst the best of them, at least in terms of action.

There is a good mixture of complexity and simplicity to the nature of the plot and its delivery, a feat which I believe deserves a special commendation. The plot and characters are solid on the whole as well and make the book in general a breeze to read through.

If you are a fan of the genre, I highly recommend you give this book a shot, as well as Brad Taylor's novels in a more general sense

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Brad Taylor Personal site Brad Taylor is an American writer who was born on the Okinawa island in Japan and grew up in rural Texas. After graduating from the University of Texas, he served for 21 years in the U.S. Army, retiring as a Special Forces Lieutenant Colonel. He earned a Master's of Science in Defense Analysis from the Naval Postgraduate School. In 2011he began his foray into writing, publishing One Rough Man and starting off the Pike Logan series, a consistent presence on the New York Times bestseller list.