This is The U.S. after the terrible 9/11 2001. All the important governmental institutions are constantly working to prevent any new terrorist attacks. An extremely important information reaches the American administration lead by Jack Rutledge. From this moment on a top secret non-orthodox solution will be adopted. These are the ingredients of a good political thriller.
Mohammed bin Mohammed is an important part of the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda which must perform a transaction which implies a nuclear weapon. The fear that the weapon will point the U.S. determines the Americans to kidnap the terrorist in order to stop the transaction and find out more information. Once kidnapped, Al-Qaeda members do the impossible to save him, including a surprise attack on Manhattan on the 4th of July.
The attack takes everyone by surprise and freezes any trace of traffic, making the authorities take care of the wounded, without taking in consideration the fact that that wasn’t the terrorists’ purpose. Abdul Ali, aka Ibrahim Rahman, manages to find out where Mohammed bin Mohammed is kept, with the help of an international spy. Armed to the teeth, he does everything in his power to find the terrorist.
On the other side, the president of the U.S. is dealing with the fury caused by the attack and the impossibility of being next to his daughter, wounded in the attack; all these while the authorities which had the president’s permission to kidnap Mohammed fight mightily to keep the secret and find out more information about Al-Qaeda. However, the outflow of information causes many questions to appear.
An agent of the National Security Department, Scott Harvath, who is actually one of the main characters, involuntarily becomes the one who will thrive to find out the truth. Putting together all the pieces one by one, he uncovers Abdul Ali’s plan, trying to stop him. Helping him there is a group of marines who will stand by him until the end.
Therefore, Scott Harvath sees himself forced to look for the needle in a haystack, blindfolded, not knowing any information about the attackers or their purpose, fighting in a wasted city with a group of terrorists. So that the suspense is even more, trying to keep the whole operation a secret, the authorities also start looking for the soldier.
Despite the American soldiers’ efforts, Mohammed bin Mohammed gets away. Will he be able to close the deal and point the nuclear weapon towards the United States? I will let you discover for yourselves, because this book deserves to be enjoyed page by page. And I am sure it will pleasantly surprise you.
What I found interesting in Brad Thor’s novel is that he doesn’t talk about the war in Iraq, the interaction between the two parts taking place on American territory. Besides this, Thor’s book gives relevant information concerning the governmental authorities which I didn’t know until now. What was most interesting was the reaction of the authorities in case of crisis, and the different plan of action of each national department. It’s like each institution is fighting to keep its autonomy without allowing another to find out its intentions, even though they are working towards the same goal. I think that by revealing this Brad Thor outlined a great truth about the U.S. institutions: they do not cooperate.
Brad Thor wrote Takedown in 2007 and I am glad I read it after such a short time. This is because Takedown is truly an interesting novel which captures one’s attention even from the first pages. Brad Thor knew how to graduate the intensity of the action so that the reader could sense the frustration and impotence of the characters, as well as the attackers’ rage. A really intense novel. I recommend this political thriller, a novel about the real United States, written from the perspective of a patriot who tries to remain objective.
Written by Cristina