by Christine Zibas

Created on: February 03, 2010

Readers who love the high paced thrillers that provide an adrenaline rush of a read are in for a treat with the latest Mark Terry novel, “The Fallen.” The series hero, Derek Stillwater, working off the grid at a G8 Summit held in Colorado Springs, Colorado, has his hands full when a terrorist group called the Fallen Angels manages to compromise security at the conference.

Stillwater is working deep under cover as a maintenance man at the Colorado resort where the G8 Summit is being held, so he has a good understanding of the layout of the building and how to work around the terrorist activities, as he picks them off one by one, once they have taken the world’s leaders hostage. There’s lots of climbing in ceiling vents, which might get a little tiring by the time the book is over, but otherwise the story is nonstop action and mayhem.

The leader of the Fallen Angels, which eventually turns out to be a Colombian terror group working within a larger body, is Richard Coffee, a fellow special ops soldier gone rogue. Stillwater knows him well, which makes the battle more intense and more personal. The story really focuses on the planning behind the scenes, and the likelihood that there will be disaster after the fact, as the FBI and Homeland Security work from the outside, setting off the traps lay for them by the Fallen Angels.

Believe it or not, there’re also several women involved in the counterterrorism rescue by Derek Stillwater-one an employee of the resort who seems more fearless than any average woman in that situation and the second a more likely Russian FSB officer, who knows Stillwater and is trained in stealth planning and counterterrorism measures. There’s a bit of an interesting twist at the end with the two women, to give author Mark Terry credit.

Mostly, this is the type of writing that will appeal to those who wonder “What if?” What if terrorists were able to seize control at an international summit? What if the Vice President had to start making national security decisions? What if the Department of Homeland Security had to work from outside the summit with little insight into maneuverings on the inside? It’s rough and tumble action at a constant pace inside, with a lot of bad decision making on the outside. For thriller junkies, it’s a book destined to please; for others, maybe less so, although it has some valuable statements to make about the government operating in a crisis.

Learn more about this author, Christine Zibas.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.