Sacrifice
"...an irresistible page turner."
Synopsis:
In 2008 in Afghanistan a Black Hawk helicopter is shot down by a surface-to-air missile. On board, along with the crew, is a single passenger, Harrison Mitchell, a senior operative with the CIA. He is taken hostage by a fanatical insurgent group. Mitchell's work in Afghanistan was top secret and he had information that could disrupt the entire War on Terror and cause major problems for the US government.
Ryan Drake and his elite Shepherd team are sent in to rescue Mitchell at any cost. However, within hours of arriving in the war-torn country they are under attack and must fight for their own lives in order to save Mitchell. Before long they are caught in a deadly conflict between a brutal terrorist and the ruthless leader of a private military company. It would seem Drake and his team cannot win this particular battle.
Lurking in the background is a woman from Drake's past, a woman who had haunted him for the past year, a woman who has prayed on his mind and toyed with his emotions. He hasn't seen her since she left him for dead in Iraq and now she is back and wants to help him. However, she has her own agenda and Drake must decide who he can really trust to complete the mission and keep himself and his team alive.
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Review:
Picking up one year after the events of Will Jordan's debut novel, 'Sacrifice' is a thrilling race against time novel where the action begins on the first page and does not let up until the gripping finale. Drake is reminiscent of Jack Reacher from the Lee Child novels, but where Reacher is only answerable to his own conscience, Drake does have a hierarchy in which he has to take orders from. He is reined in by his bosses, but only to a point. Drake is a maverick, a lone wolf, a fighter who will stop at nothing to complete his mission and therein lays the conflict and his potential downfall. His past is littered with enemies baying for his blood and old scores to settle. 'Sacrifice' is set in a masculine environment and does not shy away from the battle-hardened reality of the horrors war produces. Apart from Ryan Drake, the other male characters seem rather bland and lack his raw edginess. It is left to the women to back Drake up and they are more than capable of looking after themselves in the heat of battle. The return of Anya is a real coup and provides the support to Drake similar to that of Alice and Luther in Neil Cross's excellent crime drama. Drake and Anya make for a strange double act but it works, and there is no 'will-they-won't-they' tension as they already have. The question here is will they again? 'Sacrifice' is well researched and Jordan's description of a country torn apart for decades by war does not focus on the ravages of the landscape but paints a picture of how beautiful the country used to be, could be again and should always be. It is refreshing to see Afghanistan reflected in this way. The action never seems to let up making 'Sacrifice' an irresistible page turner. The plot twists keep on coming and there are plenty of crosses, double-crosses and triple-crosses to keep you hooked until the very last page.