The Widow's Strike

This is the fourth book in the Pike Logan series by Brad Taylor. Taylor is a legit, retired SF lieutenant colonel who brings authenticity to the world of his protagonist, Pike Logan. These novels are escapist action/adventure tales that are generally well written and fun to read if this is your genre. “The Widow’s Strike” had been sitting on my shelf for months when I picked it up the other day (mistakenly thinking it was Book #3) and started reading it. My selecting a story with the primary plot being about a deadly virus that’s stolen and weaponized in a state sanctioned terrorist attack during this time of the Covid-19 pandemic was a strange coincidence. There are many, many references to the issues in dealing with an unknown viral outbreak in this story that will resonate with any reader living through our present-day global crisis. Those who are already stressed out by current events may want to delay reading this adventure until after a vaccine has been deployed…just a suggestion. As usual with the Logan series we again find Pike and his business partner, academic turned Delta Force wannabee Jennifer Cahill up to covert shenanigans in a foreign land, this time Southeast Asia. Their company, Grolier Recovery Services is a front for an off the books special ops unit called ‘The Taskforce’ that works directly for the president. Grolier’s fake business model is to facilitate local infrastructure and host nation support for archaeological expeditions. This gives them a cover for world travel to exotic hot-spots while apprehending various bad-guys and thwarting their nefarious schemes. As expected “The Widow’s Strike” follows the formula of Taylor’s other books so there’s plenty of action, world travel, and having to fight against bureaucratic restrictions in order to prevail (which of course they will) in the end. Pike and his team of operators track a rogue Iranian general as he plans to launch an attack on America. He recruits a Latvian woman who is a “black widow” (a suicide bomber, not Scarlett Johansson’s character from “The Avengers” movies) deliberately infected with an engineered lethal version of the avian flu. Her mission is to detonate a device in a crowded space infecting people with the virus from her atomized body fluids (yuck). The pacing is swift and the pages turn quickly. I enjoyed this book; sure it’s not Dickens or anything but just reliable entertainment. LTC Taylor doesn’t burden his characters with a lot of navel gazing or sappy dialog and so far has resisted getting his lead characters into any romantic entanglements. Now I’ll go back and read book three, “Enemy of Mine”.

Written a few years ago about weaponization of the H5N1 avian flu virus, this seems weirdly prescient. Scientists pursue gain of function research on the virus until they realize how dangerous they’ve made it, while not having effective vaccine prototypes. An Iranian intelligence operation gloms onto it to hijack the remaining sample, with a dastardly plot to launch a worldwide epidemic. Pike Logan and the Taskforce must try to stop it.I liked several things about this. Iranian intelligence general Malik is a cunning and experienced adversary for Logan. One of the student revolutionaries who rebelled against the Shah in 1979, he no longer subscribes to his regime’s religious fanaticism but is true to the memory of his revolutionary past, which he thinks the mullahs have betrayed..The designated suicide terrorist, Elina, is a Chechen embittered by the years of strife that have demolished her homeland and killed much of her family. But as she embarks on contacts with Malik, first in Southeast Asia and then in the United States, she has second thoughts about what she’s been ordered to do: unleash a virus that will kill countless innocents.On the Taskforce side, drama involving Pike’s operative and girlfriend Jennifer Cahill continues. She has trained to do the work but as neither a male nor a soldier hasn’t received full acceptance of the team's more Neanderthal elements. Pike must encourage her while suppressing his instincts to defend her. She must be allowed to fight her own battles and prove herself.The book is strong on the team’s intricate techniques for surveillance and breaking and entering. Taylor finds a couple of opportunities to highlight Jennifer’s superpower. The former gymnast climbs like a monkey, leading to her callsign of Koko.There are a lot of such sequences, and they’re occasionally tedious as you try to visualize it all. Taylor’s portrayal of the missions is detailed and realistic, but you can get bogged down as you read it. I got a little lost in all the contingencies of who’s using what cell phone and what it might mean, or not mean. I enjoy this series, but not as much as some others.

The book I received was in excellent condition and arrived in the timeline as expected.

Great read

My style of book; enjoy the author's skill. And every once in a while I find a book wherea) I have traveled many times on business and I know many of the streets / buildings/ food / transportation - and this book was FULL of places I have been ANDb) even more 'odd', I read this on vacation and the action in the final 20% of the book took place within a couple of miles of where I was staying. Some of the locations were within walking distance of my condo. ANDc) the plot could have been written about current events.All the coincidences way to interesting. If you like these style books you will enjoy it!!!

I am hooked, I love every one of the Pike and Jennifer books I've read so far! They are entertaining and exciting in all of their adventures. Ready for the next.

I had the first Pike Logan book on my wish list for quite a while. I finally got around to reading it a few months ago and really liked it. Book 2, I liked it even more and LOVED book 3! Factoring in all of Pike's (and Jennifers) issues, I believe book 3 will go down as the best in the series. Now, with that being said, I purposely didn't set the bar too high when I started reading it. I went into just looking forward to the next chapter of Pike/Taskforce being thrown into a world of crap and seeing how they got the stink off! ;-) I was not disappointed! It was a really fun (mostly) non stop roller coaster ride! If you have read the 1st 3 books and like them, you will enjoy this book. If you do read it, make sure you read the acknowledgments at the end. Without giving anything away (I hope), the author gives us readers a little insight to how he built the Pike Logan character.Happy reading!

A series I have been enjoying but this was easily the weakest to date. Much of the book felt as if it had been regurgitated from previous ones and had far too many similarities. Again we have a dastardly plot against the US from extremists, again we have Pike Logan and the Taskforce going off and doing their thing against orders, again we have issues with the oversight committee. I just felt I had read it before many times and kind of sleepwalked through reading it just as the author appears to have sleepwalked through writing it. Hopefully the series will get back on track as it has great potential.

The latest in the Pike Logan series continues the strong story line and adds to his hero status - loved it

And another fantastic book in the Pike Logan series. More please...

As Vince Flynn said about this guy-he`s got what it takes

A really good read