Thriller

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Title: Black Site
Series: Delta Force #1
Author: Dalton Fury
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Action/Adventure
Pages: 347
Words: 122K

Synopsis:

Kolt Raynor, code name Racer, was at the top of his game as a Delta Force Commander when one bad decision on a covert operation plunged him into the abyss. After being kicked out of Delta Force and the military completely, for three years he took odd jobs to get by and drank his life away. Then one day there was a knock at his crappy trailer door and he was offered the chance to get back into the game, but as a civilian. The job was very risky, as in not-come-back-alive risky, but it was worth it for Kolt to do it and do it well. He had three weeks to train and it wasn’t going to be a piece of cake. If he survived the training then he would be able to start the job.

After dropping in, making contact with his local guide, Raynor begins surveillance of the compound where a group of American soldiers are being held captive. They're in captivity because they tried to rescue Raynor during his disastrous mission 3 years ago. Raynor breaks orders, infiltrates the compound, learns there is a huge operation underway by Al-Queda and exfiltrates with the vague info. His bosses refuse to act on the info and Raynor has to rely on a former Intel Spook gone native and the local guide to figure out what's going on.

Turns out Al-Queda has found a Black Site where high value prisoners are being held. They wish to rescue the prisoners, destroy America's credibility in the region and use it all as propaganda to demoralize the general American populace (with the help of the damnable propaganda machines known as the news outlets). Raynor warns the site, helps them survive the various attacks and makes his own way out of the country.

My Thoughts:

This was enjoyable but in a very ambivalent way. Raynor gets his team killed, regresses to an alcoholic, takes on a rescue mission and cleans himself up. There are no surprises as far as I was concerned and while the final goal of the Al-Queda terrorists remained a mystery up until it happened, I simply didn't care to try to figure it out. I just rolled with it.

Honestly, this is just another military action/adventure story among a whole host of them. I haven't read a lot in that particular genre so I can't tell if this was better or worse, but in general, this was ok. I've got 3 more books by Dalton and nothing here persuaded me to not read them.

★★★☆☆ ( )

Disappointingly formulaic and yet unrealistic at the same time. I'm sure there are alcohol-soused deformed Delta operators, but offering them a shot at redemption by continuing to ignore orders seems, well, teleologically misguided. ( )

This was an OK thriller but really did not hit the enjoyment factor I was hoping for based on the book blurb. I will probably have to read at least one more in this series to see if this is a character that takes some getting used to or if this one is not really for me. ( )

Not bad for a freshman entry into the action adventure scene. The action was a good mix of realistic with a touch of the cinematic, but overly plausible. I will definitely give the next book a read. ( )