Book Review: Man Down: A Broken Wings Thriller

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Man Down: A Broken Wings Thriller     Amazon US HC Amazon Canada HC
John E. Douglas
Class/Genre:   Mystery
Atria, Nov 2002, $24.00, 325 pp.

Wealthy power broker Mrs. De Vries funds Broken Wings, a unit with broad investigative powers headed by the charismatic Jake Donovan, a brilliant profiler with a very high-resolution rate on the cases he investigates. When an airplane blows up over Washington, killing everyone aboard, FBI Director Ravan asks Jake to investigate.

When Jake arrives at the bureau he is told to go home and he realizes that his old enemy, the Attorney General has yanked him off the case. He is then asked by Mrs. De Vries to find her missing niece who was supposedly having an affair with William Rush, a scientist who had been working on a top research project, but is now dead. Jake and the team learn that Mrs. De Vries’ niece has also been murdered. When the Broken Wings start putting the missing pieces together, they have their funding cut off, their investigative credentials destroyed, and the final blow comes when Jake’s son Eric is kidnapped. They have to find out how all these events are linked if they hope to rescue Eric.

MAN DOWN is an exciting crime thriller that has so many unexpected twists that readers will make this a one-sitting reading experience because they want to find out who is the mastermind behind all the interconnected incidents. The hero of this novel holds up under adversity in such a stoic manner that the audience will be rooting for him to triumph over all his enemies, known and unknown, though his seeming unconcern is tested with the abduction of Eric. Fans including this reviewer will eagerly await the next Broken Wings thriller.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner