The Devil's Ransom
A Pike Logan Novel
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4.4 • 83 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A New York Times Bestseller!
In the latest explosive thriller from New York Times bestselling author and former special forces officer Brad Taylor, Pike Logan races to stop an insidious attack orchestrated by a man who knows America’s most treasured secrets.
Conducting a routine cover development trip to Tajikistan, Pike and Jennifer learn that Afghanistan has fallen, and there’s a man on the run. One that has done more for the United States in Afghanistan than anyone else. Pulled in to extract him, Pike collides headlong into a broader mystery: his covert company, along with every other entity in the Taskforce, has been hit with a ransomware attack, and there’s some connection between the Taliban and the hack.
Given the order to track down the perpetrators, he has no idea that the problem set is much, much larger and more dangerous than a simple attack on his organization. That hack was just a test-run, and the real one is coming soon, engendered by a former NSA specialist in the U.S. government.
A man who wants to return to the bipolar world of the Cold War, the turncoat has cloaked his attack behind hackers from Serbia and Russia, and if successful, his target will alter the balance of power on the global stage. So far, the specialist has remained one step ahead of the Taskforce, but he has just made one massive mistake: hitting Pike Logan.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
You know what you’re going to get when you pick up one of Brad Taylor’s Pike Logan thrillers—genuinely tense action and lots of running. This time Pike, his partner Jennifer Cahill, and their special-ops team, known as the Taskforce, are set loose from Tajikistan to Croatia in a maze of twisted loyalties, ruthless killers, secret treasure, and wily international hackers. A former Delta Force officer himself, Taylor peppers the story with inside knowledge of military terminology and espionage methods. If you love an adrenaline-fueled read, The Devil’s Ransom is just the ticket.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The extraction of Ahmad Khan, an Afghan government official trying to flee Kabul before the Taliban takes control in August 2021, kicks off bestseller Taylor's overbusy 17th Pike Logan novel (after 2021's End of Days). This rescue mission draws special operative Pike of Taskforce into the search for the Bactrian Treasure, a priceless trunk of valuables that Khan managed to steal before his escape. Meanwhile, a hacker dubbed Dark Star breaks into the most secret layers of U.S. government computer operations and demands a ransom. Logan's boss orders Taskforce to take down Dark Star's point man, computer genius Dylan Hobbes, a former NSA coder who appears to be operating out of Croatia. No sooner does Logan close in on Dark Star than Hobbes ups the ante by hacking into NASA's computer system and programming a space tourism rocket that just blasted off, with several influential Americans aboard, to crash into the International Space Station. Taylor's fans have become used to the series' peripatetic lines of action, but even diehards may be pressed to follow a plot that often fails to digest one story development before the next one is off and running. Taylor has done better.
Customer Reviews
Consistent
In this addition to the series Taylor’s development of characters is at a snails pace. With the addition of Amena to the unlikely family that sees Pike and Jennifer become parents, seeing more development would be nice. That said this book is action packed and so sacrificing depth for flash is par for the course that makes up modern day thriller writing. Some fairly predictable elements of this story however the entanglement and concurrent plot lines was enjoyable. I recommend giving this a read as it is classic Taylor.
Fantastic read!
I just could not put it down… one of the best Pike Logan’s books