Take Down by Logan Ryles

 

I received a ARC of this book and my thanks to the team of NetGalley and the author for the copy. 

All views expressed in this review are my own and based on my reading of this book. Some of the initial comments were made as I progressed in this book and I have not tried editing them as it expresses my contiguous thoughts as I proceeded with the story.

From the Back cover 

The gang wants him. The DEA needs him. Mason may be a lost kid's only hope.

Passing through Atlanta, all Army veteran Mason Sharpe wants is a break. A break from the rain. A break from the grief he’s carrying. A quiet campsite beneath Georgia pines where he can wrestle his demons into silence.

Fate has other ideas.

Eager to leave the city, Mason doesn’t get the cops involved when he catches a kid trying to steal his truck. Jalen is fifteen, confident and smart, but headed down an ugly path. Mason drives him home, advising him to get his life back on track.

Later that night, the DEA explode into Mason’s seedy motel room. They’re convinced Jalen is the key to dismantling the South Atlanta Squad – a brutal drug gang dispensing deadly fentanyl across the region.

But Mason’s not buying the DEA’s story. Where they see a hardened gangster, he sees a lost kid caught between a rock and a hard place.

Mason isn’t looking for a fight, but he’s not the kind to run from one either. He realizes there is only one way to save Jalen. Mason will confront the gang himself, and if they won’t back down, he’ll do what he does best – a terminal take down.

Take Down by Logan Ryles

This is the first book that I have read by the author.

We have an Army veteran, Mason who was also a policeman and has quit recently following a tragedy and pursued by his own personal demons. He is now a transporter with no anchor living out of his truck, camping out and basically minding his own business. Got a lot of Jack Reacher vibes from the book blurb which made me first pick up this book.

Mason also doesn't own a cell phone just like Reacher and is a drifter but with a truck so that's where the similarity seems to end.

The book starts with a high tech jacking of a high end bike by a young boy, a Ducati and what follows is a high adrenaline chase followed by an accident and the police identifies the boy as Mason, protagonist of the tale that follows.

The start sets up the book with Mason's own difficulties with the law during adolescence and youth followed by careers in the army and police.

On a routine trip on his truck he is having his burger at a diner while he watches a kid, not unlike his younger self jacking his truck. Mason appreciates the boys skills from afar and then pulls him up before he can do too much damage to his truck. The boy is naturally antsy especially with Mason opting not to call the cops and offering assistance to the boy. The story shows the instant connect that Mason feels with the boy, a kinship of sorts due to similar backgrounds and understanding the boys intelligence and potential.

Mason's profile changes when the DEA bust him for this boy and suddenly his role in the entire situation changes. 

Instead of making himself scarce he decides to stick around as the boy's protector although the kid doesn't want help.

Drugs, gangs and an upstart make a dangerous combination, especially when the DEA has lost one of their own in a related messy episode. 

With water rising Mason seeks to redefine his own role and wades into the murky waters. 

His bottled up personal guilt trip has made him the good Samaritan here. But he's up against some deep conspiracies and drug dealers do not care for body counts. What's another body 6 feet under. 

The story progresses a familiar path with the usual alliances and episodes. The concern for the lawmen has increased as the drug dealers plan joining hands with Mexican drug mafia and peddling new age drug fentanyl which is way more toxic and addictive to cocaine. Mason finds himself smack in the middle of this turf war and takes sides fast and starts moving the process towards a conclusion where the boy can be left alone. 

What works for the book is the details of how law enforcement works and govt. agencies work with the objective always to shut down whole operations even if someone gets caught under the juggernaut. The book also get right the reaction of agents when one of their own is tortured by the lawless, all bets are off and fists ungloved. 

The book takes incidents to the extreme and some of the story becomes almost difficult to contemplate. The personal agenda of Mason is always cheesy as involvement in something this dangerous marks him as a person with a death wish but the story portrays him as one who may not be wearing a badge but has his heart at the right place. 

Some of the story machinations seem a bit stretched and would look good when edited.

What did not work for me was the length of this book. Some of the story line and incidents in the latter half of the book needed pruning. The book stretches and  as a reader I felt like I was reading the same things over and over again. A lot of the action has been seen in other books and movies, gang war and turf wars are not a unique phenomena.

Also the fact that most part of the story was predictable and did not provide anything novel. The murder of an FBI agent seemed added just to make Mason see red. 

I still appreciate the story which moves at a decent pace overall and does not make you set it aside despite the predictability. This reflects a great effort by the author. 

3.5 stars for me. The book gave me value but not bliss. I would like to see Mason Sharpe  develop as a character as he comes out of his difficult past. He has potential as has this book. Recommended

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