A Book Spy Review: ‘Price of Duty’ By Dale Brown

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In Dale Brown’s timely new thriller, Russia launches a secret operation from a secret compound built deep inside the Ural Mountains, taking cyber warfare to the next level.

After taking action against Romania, nearly causing a nuclear power reactor to self-destruct, the Russians turn their attention to Poland’s electrical grid and economy. With each attack, President Gennadiy Gryzlov uses his supercomputers’ mind-boggling technology to deliver one surgical strike after another, putting the rest of the world on notice in the process.

American President Stacy Anne Barbeau knows the Russians must be stopped, but she’s largely unprepared to take on Gryzlov and is forced to turn to her political adversary, former President Kevin Martindale, whose private military group has the means and operators necessary to locating and obliterating the Russians’ secret base.

To go to battle with Gryzlov’s secret soldiers, Barbeau and Martindale turn to Brad McLanahan and his Iron Wolf team of top-secret human-piloted combat robots. They also break out their newly created, but never used, fancy stealth fighter–and a handful of other really cool next-gen weapons.

Eventually, an assassination plot is revealed, adding to the tension and hard-hitting suspense. With the stakes raised as the Russians go after an enemy head of state, McLanahan and his team press forward towards an explosive ending that paves the way for the next novel–which cannot come soon enough.

Though this is the twenty-first novel in Brown’s Brad McLanahan series, it’s not necessary to read the previous books in order to jump in and enjoy this story. McLanahan is a compelling hero who takes charge and leads effectively. And while the human-piloted robots seem a little far-fetched, Brown makes it work in a way that seems plausible and, frankly, is quite fun to read.

Every so often the plot slows down due to lengthy descriptions of how some of the technology and weapons work and function, but those pages are usually sandwiched between action sequences–allowing the story to still read fast.

Considering some of the headlines that have dominated recent news cycles, Brown’s novel feels all too real and eerily authentic. One of the godfathers of techno-thrillers, Brown has saved some of his best and most creative story ideas for his latest thriller. Price of Duty is a smart, action-packed adventure that features some of the finest cyber terrorist attacks in print today.

Book Details

Author: Dale Brown
Series: Brad McLanahan #21
Pages: 442 (Hardcover)
ISBN: 0062441973
Publisher: William Morrow
Release Date: May 16, 2017 (Order Now!)

 

 

 

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