Total Blackout
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3.6 • 60 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2021 WILBUR SMITH ADVENTURE WRITING PRIZE
The start of a gripping new crime thriller series introducing ex-SAS trooper Jack Tate!
‘Looking for breakneck pace and a relentless hero? Alex Shaw has you covered’ James Swallow
Don’t miss the explosive start to the Jack Tate series.
When the lights go out…
British MI6 agent, and former SAS trooper, Jack Tate is trying to escape his past when he witnesses a terrorist attack of unthinkable scale. An electro-magnetic pulse knocks out the US power grid, killing anything with a computer processor, throwing the whole country into darkness.
You have to escape the past.
Under the cover of the blackout, a clandestine operation aims to assassinate prominent public figures on US soil. Looting and violence spreads across the country. And Jack Tate’s past comes back to haunt him. As the only intelligence operative on the ground, he is hurled into a mission that will put him – and the people he loves – in immediate danger.
You have to defeat the enemy.
With the fate of the United States on the line, only he can prevent the horror of a new world war.
Perfect for fans of James Deegan, Tom Clancy and Mark Greaney, this is an explosive action thriller you won’t be able to put down.
‘Compelling and authentic. An explosive new series with an uncompromising hero’ Tom Wood
‘Jack Tate is a powerful character, a true Brit hero. A cracking start to a new series!’ Alan McDermott
‘Alex Shaw is a master of the action thriller. Grabbed me from the first page and never let go’ Michael Ridpath
‘Riveting thriller with an original plot and surprising twists. Tate is totally convincing as a classic Brit operative. Great drama and characterisation’ Duncan Falconer
Reviews
‘Looking for breakneck pace and a relentless hero? Alex Shaw has you covered’ James Swallow
‘Alex Shaw is one of the best thriller writers around! Fast paced, Total Blackout gripped from page one and didn’t let go … as fast as a Hollywood movie’ Stephen Leather
‘Compelling and authentic. An explosive new series with an uncompromising hero’ Tom Wood
‘A perfect mix of hi-tech, high-concept modern action thriller and old school, Cold War espionage where evil Russians are still plotting the downfall of the West and only one man can stop them’ Simon Toyne
‘Jack Tate is a powerful character, a true Brit hero. A cracking start to a new series!’ Alan McDermott
‘Alex Shaw is a master of the action thriller. Grabbed me from the first page and never let go’ Michael Ridpath
‘Riveting thriller with an original plot and surprising twists. Tate is totally convincing as a classic Brit operative. Great drama and characterisation’ Duncan Falconer
Praise for Alex Shaw:
‘An ice-cold operative in a red-hot adventure’ Stephen Leather
‘Sizzles across the page like a flame on a short fuse!’ Matt Hilton
‘A perfect blend of spy fiction and political thriller’ Matt Lynn
Readers love the Aidan Snow books:
‘A superb, pulse-racing read’ Online reviewer
‘Exciting and fast-paced’ Online reviewer
‘Immensely enjoyable and tightly written’ Online reviewer
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Author Alex Shaw delivers a high-octane, entertaining spy thriller in Total Blackout, the first release in a new series. When MI6 agent Jack Tate travels to the US state of Maine for a holiday, any chance of enjoying his downtime vanishes when he’s suddenly plunged into the middle of a geopolitical terrorist plot. Tate’s credibility as an action hero is strengthened by Shaw’s clear and direct prose, which also brings tension and believability to some of the more over-the-top plot points. This is a sure-footed start to what we’re sure will be a blistering series.
Customer Reviews
Entertaining
3.5 stars
Author
British. Taught drama and ran a business consultancy in Kyiv, Ukraine (as you do) then worked for Siemens in the former USSR, the Middle East and Africa before turning his hand to writing thrillers involving ex-SAS dudes. (There’s Aidan Snow and Jack Tate so far. Strong names, right?) This novel expands a 2015 novella called Blackline. The sequel Total Fallout (2021) is already out.
In brief
Chinese female tech billionaire teams up with Russian ex-spook to paralyse the USA by exploding an EMP device. If you haven’t seen The Matrix, fear not. Several of the characters make reference to it. Seriously though, if you’ve never seen The Matrix, it might be time to take a long hard look at yourself. But I digress. The Russkie doubles down by eliminating a few old foes while he’s there, by which I mean he has them assassinated by an old Spetsnaz buddy. Meanwhile, our hero, a British ex-SAS paratrooper turned SIS (MI6) spook is holidaying in Camden, Maine. (Why the hell not? He’s from Camden, in London.) Shortly before the lights, and everything else, go out, his spidey sense is twigged by the local concurrence of assassinations and lurking Russians. Down in Washington DC, a couple of prominent Brits get dead, and our hero’s half-bro, a spook attached to the Embassy in Washington disappears. Cue investigation, serial mayhem, boom, bang, crash, thunk, wallop, yada, yada, followed by bandaging and cups of tea in from of WWE reruns.
Writing
Action aplenty, builds to cracking pace, limited (by which I mean almost no) character development as is typical for this type of yarn, willing suspension of belief, the usual.
Bottom line
Entertaining way to spend a few hours. As good as anything else going round in this subgenre.