A Team Of One by Brad Lee
Publisher: Simply Sensible Entertainment Inc
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Action/Adventure
Rating: 5 stars
Reviewed by Fern

Former Navy SEAL “Axe” Southmark is enticed out of retirement to help the analyst and the President. But does he have what it takes to save the world?

As a Navy SEAL, Axe was trained to never give up. But after fifteen years on the front lines, it was time to let younger, faster men take the reins.

When he’s enlisted to help the President’s niece search for both a terrorist on the loose and a traitor in the government, he doesn’t hesitate.

It’s what he does: protects the vulnerable and kills bad guys.

With New York City threatened by a virtuoso bomber, there’s plenty of both to be done.

Will they be able to stop a madman before it’s too late? And is there more to the plot than meets the eye?

Find out in this wild ride of a story.

Former Navy SEAL, Axe is trying to settle into civilian life and find his niche when a former colleague reaches out with an enticing offer from left field. The President’s niece has uncovered some unusual activity in her job as a junior analyst, but unwilling to be treated differently she knows she needs more data. As Haley and Axe begin to uncover more, they realise this goes far deeper – and higher, politically – than either of them could have believed. Can they save New York and the country?

I purchased this book on a whim, having never heard of the author before and boy am I glad I did. This is a deliciously woven story with some excellent characters and a solid pace. I enjoyed the fact a little time was spent at the start showing us who Axe is and what he’s capable of. While still enjoyable the first few chapters were more of a scene-setting pace, easing the reader in and allowing them to get conformable with the author’s writing style and get to know the characters. Readers should also be aware that while this book does have a strong military theme the author has seemed to take great care to keep it primarily plot and character focused – there is plenty of gun, action and military detail here, but the characters and plot always seem to take the primary focus which I loved.

Pretty soon though I found the pace grew quicker and more action orientated. By the time we reached the middle of the story I found it exceptionally difficult to put the book down and to go about daily life. As more pieces of the puzzle came together – and as the Big Bad Plan began to take action – the pace really skyrocketed and all I wanted was to read the next chapter and then the next. Be prepared to stay up later than you expected for this one. It’s been quite some time (like a year or more) since I’ve stayed up into the very early hours on a workday just to read “a little bit more” but I truly just couldn’t wait to find out what happened next.

I really felt the author had a good blend of action and adventure along with plot and characterization. I’m always a little nervous of military-heavy sorts of books because while I enjoy some strong details in the story, I find often military-based outlooks can be a bit gun or weapon heavy. This book had a really good balance I feel, it was realistic and detailed enough to satisfy readers who want every piece of information, but the characters and plotting were also detailed – and fast paced enough – to not have me feel bogged down by this. I also felt that while the “taking over the world” sort of overall plot is not very new, this was a different enough take on that to feel fresh and the action and characters certainly kept my attention focused and I didn’t need to skip forward.

Finally, I also was seriously impressed with some of the plot twists towards the end of the book. A section revolving around the president in particular really impressed me and – for me personally at least – it was a unique, outside-the-box type of solution that I’ve never read before. Even now, days after finishing this book I’m still turning it over in my mind and thinking about the book as a whole and how some of these plot aspects unwound. I found the book as a whole exceptional.

I thoroughly enjoyed this first book and was very happy to see it is part of a series. I had ordered the next two books and the first in a different series by this author before I’d even reached the half way point of reading this. I am quite eager to see what’s in store for Axe and Haley in the next installment. A really enjoyable and fast paced read. Recommended.