Gridlock

Nate Osborne and Ashley Borden #2

by Byron L. Dorgan, David Hagberg

Two Iranian agents hand over one million dollars to a Russian engineer for a thumbdrive. The drive contains a deadly computer virus that could shut down all electrical power in the United States at a keystroke.

In rural North Dakota, a lineman is electrocuted, and the local cop sent to investigate is shot to death. As rolling electrical blackouts begin to shut down major US cities, the war for energy domination begins.

Two nations are behind this deadly attack: Venezuela and Iran, intent on destroying the present world order and bringing an arrogant America to its knees. Their agent of terror is Yuri Makarov, a former Spetsnaz officer, the best of the best among the shadow world of killers for hire. When governments are powerless to stop such a man from sending the United States back to the horse-and-buggy era, North Dakota county sheriff Nate Osborne and brash journalist Ashley Borden once again step into the breach.

Gridlock is a harrowing near-future thriller from New York Times bestselling duo Senator Byron Dorgan and David Hagberg.

Genres: Fiction, Thriller, Suspense

432 pages, Hardcover

First published July 9, 2013

Reviews

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

Accepting the premise that the objective of a "thriller" is to entertain and tangentially, to educate, "Gridlock", an enhanced sequel to 2012's "Blowout", is entertaining, educational and more. The complex issues in the plot revolve around an energy war fought against the US by Venezuela and Iran using a secret Russian computer program as a delivery system to destroy the American energy grid, sending the US into darkness and chaos. The main character is a small town sheriff in North Dakota who also happens to be a Medal of Honor recipient from Afghanistan and inadvertently gets caught up in the game. All serving to make us think about what our individual survival would look like without electricity. That and David Hagberg's flair for creating memorably enduring characters and complex, fast moving action sequences make this book an excellent read.

[Neal Reinhardt · Rating 3 out of 5]

A glimpse of what could happen. Flowed ok.

[Lou · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good, moving books about two foreign agents who hand over a thumb drive with a computer program/virus which would wreak havoc with the US electric grid. The Two agents are from Iran's VEVAK intelligence service. The man given the drive is a Russian Spetnaz agent. This agent then turns the thumb drive over to a hacker in the Netherlands.
After that, a power problem develops and the local power company sends a lineman out to investigate. The lineman discovers that the cause of the outage seems to be more than routine, but before he can get things fully restored, he is electrocuted. When local law enforcement goes to investigate, he along with an innocent couple are murdered. This sets in motion events from blackouts to political intrigue to mysterious agencies and hackers...

[Hilary · Rating 2 out of 5]

Obviously a sequel (the affected characters virtually call it that) and influenced by Arthur Hailey himself as well as Overload, this aims to be a political terrorism-thriller but it missed the mark for me. Too much coincidence, the apparently essential yet unexplained death of the lineman and too many people who just happen to have essential and very rare skills and knowledge talking too freely about classified info continually forced me out of the story.

[Tony Blenman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel was very much like another one I previously read. Both of them are about the sabotage of the U.S. electrical grid system. In the present book, two foreign nations paid a Russian terrorist, Makarov, for a computer virus that would be used to cause the blackouts. The procedure is not simple, as many characters are involved, and synchronization and effective communication are needed. The characters are from different countries with different languages.
In getting the job done, the Russian terrorist is ruthless, and killing for him is quite normal. As a result of the killing of a lineman and a young couple, Sheriff Osborne is introduced.
Osborne and Makarov know each other from the past. Osborn sets out to find Makarov, retrieve the virus, and kill him.
The story moves along well, but too often the main character and the antagonist seem to possess exceptional insight to assist them in knowing what is going to happen and how to get around the problem.
Even the protagonist's partner has exceptional skills which she uses to combat a special forces individual and prevail against him.

[Nancy Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a page turner for me but there was a bit too much coincidence in it for me to rate it higher than three stars. Everything fell together a little too easily. The story, though, gave me something to really think about. Wars in the world like World War I or II seem to be a thing of the past. No longer do we have actual wars of combat but now we seem to have skirmishes in different parts of the world i.e. Desert Storm, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Korea. This story presents us with a new type of warfare - in technology. I'm not sure the characters were such an important part of the novel but rather the idea of hackers disrupting our electrical grid and gaining access through our technology and our dependence on it.

[Markum · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent story, which generally moved along pretty well, though occasionally bogged down my interest. Good mix of characters, except for the obnoxious writer-girlfriend of the sheriff. Not sure why writers feel the need to add unrealistic characters like her, when the story and other characters were fine without her. Come on, a stubborn, untrained civilian is going to confront a trained international assassin multiple times, just because she is a writer and the girlfriend of the highly trained and highly decorated sheriff to save him? Otherwise it was a good story, though I did resent the comparison to 9/11 (a real life tragedy) throughout a novel.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

L

[sharon hasting · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a good story, the ending was flat.

[Maureen Lamb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gridlock is a harrowing near-future thriller. I really enjoyed reading it. It was so tru to life and a bit scary as to what could happen if the electric grid in the US became compromised.

[Kevin Trainer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this was better than blowout and I’m hoping for a third book in the series. Not sure that will happen. Very good story .

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

With a few major exceptions (detailed below), this was a fast read that had its good points and bad points. It may have been a sequel (there are a ton of references to a previous attack) but this isn't listed anywhere in the book. Overall it's hard to recommend for the reasons below.

Sometimes the author(s) slip into "we" mode when talking about the US, breaking the voice of the book and making it seem preachy and jingoistic at the same time.

A lot of standoffs (particularly between Nate and Marakov) just end with them walking away. For two guys who are supposedly so ready to kill each other it seems weird.

It always seems strange when real people are characters in a fictional book. (In this case, both Ameninijad and Hugo Chavez)

Their presence is even stranger because the book can't decide what it wants to be. Is it a global terror/war plot or a story told from Osborne and Marakov's perspective? Sometimes it seems like they can't decide.

The writing is usually solid, if unspectacular, but there are a few cringeworthy sentences and edits.

[Mike · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just could not get into this one, which is disappointing because I was really looking forward to it. What really killed it for me was the investigation that was taking place after the initial incident. We as the reader already knew all we needed to know about both parties involved. The result was just boring, boring, boring. Not to mention the jarring writing, I found myself reading things over twice because of how it read. Again this was such a bummer because it really sounded interesting but just fell flat.

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was okay...not great. Lots of "ooh, this could happen - we'd better watch out" kind of stuff. Yeah, we know it could happen and if it does there's nothing we can do about it. I like to read about what people might do if something like this actually does occur. Ordinary people in extraordinary situations are things I like to read about. This was just another action/adventure novel without the flair of Clive Cussler or Brad Thor.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like the plot and the characters. The storyline, depicting a massive terrorist attack, is probable.

What I do not find credible is local sheriff, Nate Osborne, comes sweeping in to save the day, while federal agencies, piss and moan, as though they are impotent. Maybe a good storyline in fantasizes, and fairy tales. Both writers, I am sure, knows the difference. Maybe, the truth is too much strong to stomach, so the story is watered down. And the all lived happily together. Amen.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a good novelization of how a blackout of America's electrical grid could take place via terrorist attack. The author obviously had to fictionalize much of it for security purposes, and that is perfectly fine. The fact that you start to enjoy and root for the contractor is a little disturbing. This is a great political thriller with some very good thoughts.

[Lurch · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. There were a couple of "cringe-worthy" parts of the book that made me shake my head in disbelief, but the book did serve the purpose that I'd bought it for - to occupy my mind while I was forced to kill too many hours in a hospital with a family member. You could do a lot worse.

[Ryan Hillis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good thriller about Iran shutting down the whole U.S. Electrical grid. A small town sheriff saves the day!!

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

These vaguely remind me of something, a couple of phrases are familiar, but I can't place them.


The Stand!

[Jonathan Bacon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Obviously part of a series (I missed the first book) but it stands well on its own. Intriguing, disconcerting and action packed. A good choice for light reading with a message.

[Phil · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great idea...clunky writing...not sure I will finish. Tom Clancy or Dan Brown does this kind of stuff better

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book. Gives an insight on some of the issues with our power grid. Could have been edited better. Good read just for the insight and for those that read a lot of spy novels.

[Judith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fast pace thriller. Gives one thought as to if this could be a scenario that could happen to the U.S.

[Meakin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Moves right along easy-to-follow fun to read.

[Ernest · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good Book anyone would like

[Mari · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fast paced read about Energy terrorism.

[Rusty · Rating 1 out of 5]

...because chapter 48 is that bad. Overall it's a good read, though.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pretty interesting take on what a blackout of the electrical grid would do to America.

[Dick Hynes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty well written . Interesting plot theme. Quick read.