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Ryan Kealey #7
Threatcon Delta
"Britton's plots seem to jump straight out of the headlines." --St. Louis Post Dispatch
"Well written and exciting…perfect escape reading!" --Tampa Tribune on The American
Ryan Kealey has no doubt that the forces seeking to tip this teetering world into chaos are just getting better. Better equipped, better organized, and, most terrifying of all, more patient. And despite all the ELINT, the all-seeingelectronic intelligence gathered at Langley, nothing stops a devastating attack from ripping through the heart of San Antonio, Texas.
Wrenched from retirement to work the Texas tragedy, Kealey learns of a far greater threat in the Middle East. A radical terrorist group claims possession of a powerful ancient relic, the Staff of Moses, which they will use to unleash plagues across the globe. To avert unimaginable devastation, lone-wolf Kealey, armed with little more than intuition, must prevent , a disaster of biblical proportions that may well be inevitable.
"Brilliantly well written with plotting sharper than a fence full of razor wire, a sizzling page- turner." --Brad Thor on The Operative
"Absorbing…extraordinarily hard to put down." --Charlotte Observer on The American
"A gripping saga ripped out of the late
528 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published November 25, 2014
76 people are currently reading
379 people want to read
About the author
Andrew Britton
30 books161 followersDuring his early childhood, Andrew Britton lived between England and Camlough, County Armagh, Northern Ireland, until the family emigrated to the United States in 1988 at age seven. Britton spent years in both Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Raleigh, North Carolina. After graduating from Leesville Road High School in Raleigh in 1999, Britton joined the U.S. Army as a combat engineer. He stayed in the Army for three years and served in Korea.
After his military service, Britton attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he studied economics and psychology.
He published his first novel at age 23.
Britton died at the age of 27 of an undiagnosed heart condition in Durham, North Carolina.
After his military service, Britton attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he studied economics and psychology.
He published his first novel at age 23.
Britton died at the age of 27 of an undiagnosed heart condition in Durham, North Carolina.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
January 3, 2015
THREATCON BOREDOM
Andrew Britton was a rising star in the spy thriller world. I found his books like a deconstruction of Vince Flynn's Mitch Rapp, where the main protagonist suffers the consequences of his cowboy antics painfully like any real life Intelligence Officer would if they went off the reservation. Tragically, come book 3, he passed away from a heart disorder. Soon after, his estate arranged for a ghost writer to polish up book 4 and then continue the series. Book 5 barring 2 minor details matched and at times surpassed the first books in thrills and the main threat of the novel is something I hope doesn't ever get into the wrong hands.
Unfortunately, the quality of book 6 dropped. The ghost-writer forgot about pacing and while there was some decent action and technology, it was slower than "The Operative". But that pales in comparison to book 7, a case-study in how not to write a counter-terrorist thriller, or a thriller for that matter. Threatcon Delta. A good alternate title could be the longest con. This book has hardly any action, a plot that is frankly a bloody mess and was so overdrawn with padding that I had to fight the urge not to skim read. Now to the review. What would happen if terrorists acquired one of the deadliest religious relics in existence.
The novel begins in 2014 near Christmas time. In what is the best section of the book (and one of the two things that got it the one star) A DEA agent staking out a drug smuggling route in the California desert gets killed by a South African mercenary armed with a tricked out crossbow. The next day, she travels to San Antonio Texas and instigates a mass casualty incident, leaving timed explosives in the vehicle she hitched hiked with and using her crossbow to conduct a political assassination. Half a year later, Ryan Kealey, the main protagonist whose attempts to retire from the company have been constantly thwarted by his so-called friend Director John Harper gets assigned to a seemingly minor assignment. A Egyptian Unit 777 soldier conducting a surveillance op in eastern Egypt films footage of what appears to be the Staff Of Moses making a reappearance in the hands of mysterious group of men. What starts as a somewhat boring investigation turns into a race to stop a conspiracy hatched in the highest levels of Egypt's Counter-terrorism establishment.
First things first. The plot. Slow is an understatement. If it had been literary espionage like Le Carre or Charles Cummings, I would let it pass. If the author had put in more action and less padding, this book would have been decent. If the structure had been logically planned out, Threatcon Delta had the potential to take this series into a unique direction. But no. It was not to be. Since there was too much padding, the plot began to drag like a snail and the storyline seemed to jump pedantically. Since there was little action, a must-have for any counter-terrorist thriller, the novel was unable to hold my attention. To write a good counter-terrorist/espionage thriller, you have to plot methodically, and make use of the violent situations and nature of the subject matter to hold the reader's interest. Vince Flynn, Stephen England and Brad Taylor are prime examples of authors who get it right.
Characters. Only two standouts (and the second thing which got the one star). Because they're secondary characters who probably won't appear in any future installments. The South African mercenary in the first part of the book is fantastic and seeing her plan and perfectly execute a killing harks back to the days of Yasmin Ransim and Whilliam Vanderveen, the late Andrew Britton's two best antagonists. Unfortunately, she makes no other appearance after the first section of the novel.
Standout number two is Bassam Aljo, the Unit 777 soldier whose surveillance op kicks off the events of the main storyline. Highly competent he averts many stereotypes about most Middle Eastern armed services. He's also a lot more likable than the main protagonist and for me, stole the show from Ryan Kealey. The book would have been much better if it focused on Aljo. He's the man in the field and unlike Kealey who sits safe back in the states for most of the book, Aljo is risking life and limb like any fictional counter-terrorist operative worth his salt should.
Finally, we have the main threat of the novel. It's biological warfare. But the way the plot is executed is one of the most convoluted and needlessly complicated fictional terrorist attacks I have ever read about. The plotters attempt to use a con man trick on a massive scale, manufacturing a religious event in order to lure in potential hosts to get infected with the biological weapon and spread it across the middle east. Highly time consuming and so agonizingly implausible, there are other counter-terrorist thrillers which have been far more plausible when it comes to biological weapons. Stephen England and Brad Taylor for instance have used the much more simple, achievable and horrifying method of an infected suicide bomber in their books (Pandora's Grave and The Widow's Strike respectively).
Overall, it's rather sad to see a good series lose its way. Books 1-5 will always be hits in my opinion. This one however is a miss, and ended up with me because I broke the rule of only buying the books with solid amazon reviews. Threatcon Delta. It's a threat to your time, money and sanity. Wait for something better or buy something better.
NOT RECOMMENDED AT ALL.
Andrew Britton was a rising star in the spy thriller world. I found his books like a deconstruction of Vince Flynn's Mitch Rapp, where the main protagonist suffers the consequences of his cowboy antics painfully like any real life Intelligence Officer would if they went off the reservation. Tragically, come book 3, he passed away from a heart disorder. Soon after, his estate arranged for a ghost writer to polish up book 4 and then continue the series. Book 5 barring 2 minor details matched and at times surpassed the first books in thrills and the main threat of the novel is something I hope doesn't ever get into the wrong hands.
Unfortunately, the quality of book 6 dropped. The ghost-writer forgot about pacing and while there was some decent action and technology, it was slower than "The Operative". But that pales in comparison to book 7, a case-study in how not to write a counter-terrorist thriller, or a thriller for that matter. Threatcon Delta. A good alternate title could be the longest con. This book has hardly any action, a plot that is frankly a bloody mess and was so overdrawn with padding that I had to fight the urge not to skim read. Now to the review. What would happen if terrorists acquired one of the deadliest religious relics in existence.
The novel begins in 2014 near Christmas time. In what is the best section of the book (and one of the two things that got it the one star) A DEA agent staking out a drug smuggling route in the California desert gets killed by a South African mercenary armed with a tricked out crossbow. The next day, she travels to San Antonio Texas and instigates a mass casualty incident, leaving timed explosives in the vehicle she hitched hiked with and using her crossbow to conduct a political assassination. Half a year later, Ryan Kealey, the main protagonist whose attempts to retire from the company have been constantly thwarted by his so-called friend Director John Harper gets assigned to a seemingly minor assignment. A Egyptian Unit 777 soldier conducting a surveillance op in eastern Egypt films footage of what appears to be the Staff Of Moses making a reappearance in the hands of mysterious group of men. What starts as a somewhat boring investigation turns into a race to stop a conspiracy hatched in the highest levels of Egypt's Counter-terrorism establishment.
First things first. The plot. Slow is an understatement. If it had been literary espionage like Le Carre or Charles Cummings, I would let it pass. If the author had put in more action and less padding, this book would have been decent. If the structure had been logically planned out, Threatcon Delta had the potential to take this series into a unique direction. But no. It was not to be. Since there was too much padding, the plot began to drag like a snail and the storyline seemed to jump pedantically. Since there was little action, a must-have for any counter-terrorist thriller, the novel was unable to hold my attention. To write a good counter-terrorist/espionage thriller, you have to plot methodically, and make use of the violent situations and nature of the subject matter to hold the reader's interest. Vince Flynn, Stephen England and Brad Taylor are prime examples of authors who get it right.
Characters. Only two standouts (and the second thing which got the one star). Because they're secondary characters who probably won't appear in any future installments. The South African mercenary in the first part of the book is fantastic and seeing her plan and perfectly execute a killing harks back to the days of Yasmin Ransim and Whilliam Vanderveen, the late Andrew Britton's two best antagonists. Unfortunately, she makes no other appearance after the first section of the novel.
Standout number two is Bassam Aljo, the Unit 777 soldier whose surveillance op kicks off the events of the main storyline. Highly competent he averts many stereotypes about most Middle Eastern armed services. He's also a lot more likable than the main protagonist and for me, stole the show from Ryan Kealey. The book would have been much better if it focused on Aljo. He's the man in the field and unlike Kealey who sits safe back in the states for most of the book, Aljo is risking life and limb like any fictional counter-terrorist operative worth his salt should.
Finally, we have the main threat of the novel. It's biological warfare. But the way the plot is executed is one of the most convoluted and needlessly complicated fictional terrorist attacks I have ever read about. The plotters attempt to use a con man trick on a massive scale, manufacturing a religious event in order to lure in potential hosts to get infected with the biological weapon and spread it across the middle east. Highly time consuming and so agonizingly implausible, there are other counter-terrorist thrillers which have been far more plausible when it comes to biological weapons. Stephen England and Brad Taylor for instance have used the much more simple, achievable and horrifying method of an infected suicide bomber in their books (Pandora's Grave and The Widow's Strike respectively).
Overall, it's rather sad to see a good series lose its way. Books 1-5 will always be hits in my opinion. This one however is a miss, and ended up with me because I broke the rule of only buying the books with solid amazon reviews. Threatcon Delta. It's a threat to your time, money and sanity. Wait for something better or buy something better.
NOT RECOMMENDED AT ALL.
January 23, 2015
01/22/2015 Update: I can't do it...I can't finish this book it's so bad. What a shame. It's a rare occasion that I can't force myself to finish a book, but this one just did me in. This book is like chicken nuggets, parts picked and pushed together. Tastes nothing like chicken!
11/29/2014 Have read all Andrew Britton's books and liked them very much. He had talent and the potential to become a huge hit in the mass market. It's sad that he died so young. Anyway, I'm in the midst of reading this book and it's sooooo bad I don't know that I'll be able to finish it. This feels like the author had started a framework for the book and maybe wrote parts of it, but then didn't finish. So, it was picked up by someone else who tried to patch it together for publication. The plot is all over the place and makes no sense at all, 15 chapters in. The protagonist, Ryan Kealey is having some sort of crisis, but it's not clear why, nor is the passage of time. Overall, this is going very badly.
11/29/2014 Have read all Andrew Britton's books and liked them very much. He had talent and the potential to become a huge hit in the mass market. It's sad that he died so young. Anyway, I'm in the midst of reading this book and it's sooooo bad I don't know that I'll be able to finish it. This feels like the author had started a framework for the book and maybe wrote parts of it, but then didn't finish. So, it was picked up by someone else who tried to patch it together for publication. The plot is all over the place and makes no sense at all, 15 chapters in. The protagonist, Ryan Kealey is having some sort of crisis, but it's not clear why, nor is the passage of time. Overall, this is going very badly.
February 4, 2017
I really don't know how to rate this book because I couldn't even finish it.
February 22, 2016
I was disappointed in this book which is surprising because I enjoyed five other Andrew Britton books. I got very tired of the author's ending every chapter with a "wait till you see what happened next!" type of statement. Boring. There was very little excitement in the book so if you are looking for a thriller, don't buy this one. I like books that are "page turners"... this was was anything but.
January 9, 2018
Britton's plots seem to jump ... right into the garbage. Am in total agreement with the overwhelmingly negative responses to this unmitigated piece of crap. The novel, if I can even call it that, just plain stinks. On the bright side, it's a good thing Britton is dead because he'd probably die of shame rather than live down this literary equivalent of smelly toilet paper.
January 31, 2015
The real Andrew Britton would turn over in his grave if he knew stories like this were being put out in his name. Don't bother! Im done with the Ryan Kealey series after this nonsense.
August 17, 2015
Audiobook
HORRIBLE narration by David Ledoux. I stopped within the first chapter.
Perhaps the text is better.
HORRIBLE narration by David Ledoux. I stopped within the first chapter.
Perhaps the text is better.
December 11, 2015
expected a lot from the new book ... rather found it complete boring.... wht Ryan Kealy has to do in it.... expect buying a house
May 20, 2016
Don't like the title. Wasn't one of his best.
July 26, 2017
Absolute rubbish, and that's being kind to this piece of trash. Just reeks. Avoid it like stained underwear.
August 15, 2017
Garbage. Just plain garbage.
Read
March 5, 2017This was P A I N F U L...the beginning brought on a headache. Not an easy read as those ACTUALLY WRITTEN BY BRITTON. I quit after the first 2 chapters.
March 21, 2018
Nauseating. Threw it down the sewer.
December 3, 2018
This was... I don't even know what this was. The real Andrew Britton would likely be rolling over in his grave if he were to read what whichever ghostwriter was using his name for this one concocted as the (thankfully) final book in this series. The whole "ancient religious artifact meets conspiracy" thing was entirely too Dan Brown if you ask me (which, y'know, is fine if you're looking to read a Dan Brown novel, but that's not what this was supposed to be)... or maybe that should be "too Indiana Jones" (which, again, is fine if you're looking for an Indiana Jones movie), given the Nazi connection. (Sure, let's bring in the Nazis, because that hasn't been done a million times... In case you're wondering: Yes, I'm literally rolling my eyes as I type this. Just as I did when what passes for a plot in this book started to become clearer, and at the same time, utterly predictable.) In addition to the fact that the plot is an overblown, ridiculous mess, I also found Kealey himself to be extremely unlikable in this installment, much more so than in any of the previous books. It's just as well that this was the last book. The quality of these books has deteriorated to the point that I wouldn't pick up the next one even if there were one.
July 5, 2017
Jumping back into the Ryan Kealey series after about 4 years. Took awhile to recall the universe and the characters but once I got through that this book was a pretty smooth ride.
Working with Nazis and a Army Chaplain, Ryan Kealey attempts to discredit what seems to be a plot to galvanise followers into following a modern day "Moses", complete with the staff that turns into a snake and called down the plagues.
The twist at the end was well executed and the geo-political subplot of loose borders in the Middle East is explored here. Overall a solid book, but my only beef was that the climax was too fast-paced and was somewhat confusing - I had to re-read quite a few times before managing to link the various events together.
Working with Nazis and a Army Chaplain, Ryan Kealey attempts to discredit what seems to be a plot to galvanise followers into following a modern day "Moses", complete with the staff that turns into a snake and called down the plagues.
The twist at the end was well executed and the geo-political subplot of loose borders in the Middle East is explored here. Overall a solid book, but my only beef was that the climax was too fast-paced and was somewhat confusing - I had to re-read quite a few times before managing to link the various events together.
June 18, 2017
Boo, I borrowed this from the library excited to read about Ryan Kealey again, but he only played a minor role in this book and honestly I kept asking myself why I was reading this. I know Mr Britton passed away suddenly but hoped that there were some manuscripts found but this writing is nothing like the first ones before he passed away .
July 3, 2018
Kept waiting for something exciting to happen but it never did.
Read
June 29, 2019Vomit and read what you spewed. Better than this junk.
January 31, 2024
This book took longer to read as it didn’t grab me for much of the book. I enjoyed it while I was reading it but, didn’t hurry back to it. Probably will read the next in the series but no rush.
January 9, 2015
As Ryan Kealey is ready to enjoy his retirement and a new home on a Connecticut mountain, he is called back into action by Jonathan Harper, his supervisor at the CIA. He is told of the death of an operative trained by Kealey and then they learn of a bombing in San Antonio. As he prepares to investigate this, he is called off and sent in another direction. Kealey heads back to the Mideast where a prophet claiming to be Moses has appeared before a mass of people in Egypt. The CIA has learned of a plot to unleash a plague upon the people at the site and they will carry the plague back to their homeland. Kealey has to stop the terrorists from unleashing this.
There are a lot of details left hanging in this book. The Zulu who killed the operative trained by Kealey also was responsible for the bombing in San Antonio. Yet once Kealey left to handle the mess in Egypt, nothing more is heard of this person. Will this lead in to a new book?
There are a lot of details left hanging in this book. The Zulu who killed the operative trained by Kealey also was responsible for the bombing in San Antonio. Yet once Kealey left to handle the mess in Egypt, nothing more is heard of this person. Will this lead in to a new book?
December 29, 2014
A disappointing end to a great series. That's not to say it wasn't good, but it wasn't a Kealey book. It was more of a "secondary character's" book. It lacked the white-knuckle tension that is the mainstay of the series, and because it felt like the other character had center stage, it just wasn't the same.
March 11, 2019
Enjoyable but filled with gaps
If you don't mind filling in the blanks, then you will enjoy this thriller. The perspective is different and intriguing. The plot holes are fairly large. The gist of the story, though, is thought provoking and exciting.
If you don't mind filling in the blanks, then you will enjoy this thriller. The perspective is different and intriguing. The plot holes are fairly large. The gist of the story, though, is thought provoking and exciting.
November 26, 2016
The title didn't fit
I've really enjoyed the others in the series but this one fell short. Perhaps it was because the author did not spend as much time on what was going on in Kealy's mind and more on the action at My. Sinai.
I've really enjoyed the others in the series but this one fell short. Perhaps it was because the author did not spend as much time on what was going on in Kealy's mind and more on the action at My. Sinai.
March 17, 2015
Not up to the level of the other books in the series.
November 29, 2014
Read my review next week on bookreporter.com .
May 21, 2015
This author died in 2008, so I'm not sure who is continuing this series. This book was not quite up to snuff.
March 3, 2015
good read
Maybe not his best Ryan Kealey book but enjoyable none the less. You will enjoy it reading it. I give 5 stars
Maybe not his best Ryan Kealey book but enjoyable none the less. You will enjoy it reading it. I give 5 stars
never-finished
May 8, 2015Use to love Andrew Britton's books, but this one just didn't cut it with a ghost writer.
January 7, 2016
Not Britton's best. The story was disjointed and a bit convoluted. There was a different feel to the style as well, which seemed less like Britton's better work.
November 19, 2015
Mejorando la historia con cada libro
Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews