REVIEW: Power Down by Ben Coes

Power Down by Ben Coes
Publishing information: Paperback; 449 pages
Publisher: St. Martin Press; 28 Sept 2010
ISBN: 9780312580742
Series: Dewey Andreas #1
Copy: Out of Pocket
Reviewer: Tyson

Amazon

Synopsis: "A major North American hydroelectric dam is blown up and the largest off-shore oil field in this hemisphere is destroyed in a brutal, coordinated terrorist attack. But there was one factor that the terrorists didn't take into account when they struck the Capitana platform off the coast of Colombia--slaughtering much of the crew and blowing up the platform--and that was the Capitana crew chief Dewey Andreas. Dewey, former Army Ranger and Delta, survives the attack, rescuing as many of his men as possible. But the battle has just begun.
While the intelligence and law enforcement agencies scramble to untangle these events and find the people responsible, the mysterious figure of Alexander Fortuna--an agent embedded into the highest levels of American society and business--sets into play the second stage of these long-planned attacks. The only fly in the ointment is Dewey Andreas--who is using all his long-dormant skills to fight his way off the platform, then out of Colombia and back to the U.S., following the trail of terrorists and operatives sent to stop him."

It is tough finding author's that give you a believable story and still manage to pull off a badass character in military fiction. They either go buck wild and tell and entertaining story but you end up having to suspend belief in order for you to stay on board with everything going on, or they stay so close to reality that the story loses its audience. I picked up Coes' first novel quite a while ago but finally found the time to give him a shot.

In Power Down we have Dewey Andreas, a former Ranger and Delta operator who has ran away from his past and taken up a job with an American oil corp in order to hide from his former life. One of the reasons I enjoyed the novel is the way in which Coes writes about Dewey, he isn't a macho superman, nor is he a gray man doing his best to stay in the shadows. He is just doing a job in the middle of nowhere and keeping his head down while managing an oil drilling platform. Coes foreshadows Dewey as someone not to be messed with but overall the way in which he writes the character it isn't in your face and always looming on every page.

It doesn't take long for the action to heat up as terrorist have a cunning plan to bring down America by hitting their energy grid. They destroy the oil rig Dewey is working on and destroy a dam that provides power to the eastern seaboard. It is up to Dewey to find a way to uncover the players and bring them to justice. The plot is a unique one that is an actual concern to America's stability. The villain, which is a nice change of pace, is unexpected and written well.

My only issue with the novel, and it is a small complaint, is the fact that Coes continually uses the word "clip" to describe a gun's magazine. While the average person wouldn't bat an eye at the word, gun enthusiasts, law enforcement, and military readers will notice it right off the bat. In my case, it would bring me out of the story for a few minutes every time it was used before I would get back into it. Using the word clip is something that most people with firearms training avoid.

Power Down was a fun read that left me wanting more. It is a perfect Summer read that was entertaining and exciting.

Overall 7/10