Mike Cooper (1)

The last person that most people do not want to see during the month of April is their trusted account. A person that could be described as someone who is rather dull, rigid, and does things by the book. This story is about your not so average accountant that takes on the corporations that hide money from the government. His name is Silas Cade and he is a man with a double life. To most he is an average accountant that audits large companies, while in reality he is an independent contractor with a bullet. Silas is a man that leads an intense life and one that is on its way of being shortened. He finds himself on the doorstep of an executive that has 'cooked' the books by millions of dollars. While exposing this leader's lies he finds the Russian mob on his trail and is in for the fight of his life. Will Silas expose this executives tendency toward murder and manipulation? Can he bring justice to the many people that have been swindled out of their money?

This book was a very intense read that kept me occupied for many hours. I enjoyed the constant action that took place throughout the book and I liked how the author kept me interested. I found myself wondering what would happen next to Silas and thought that it could not get any worse for him. Boy was I wrong, but I liked how the story played itself out. There was surprise after surprise and I did not think that I would enjoy it as much as I did. I am normally not one to really get into stories like this so it was a fun change for me. I would recommend this book in a heart beat and believe it would make a great gift. If you have a loved one that is into high action thriller type novels than this book is for you! I have to thank both the author and goodreads for sending this book to me in a giveaway! It was much appreciated and I look forward to reading the author's future works! :)… (plus d'informations)

Full Ratchet: A Silas Cade Thiller is the second Silas Cade book by Mike Cooper. The “hook” of this series is that Silas is an accountant who uses his military background to even the score for financial malfeasance. It seems like an interesting premise, and the book is well-written, but ultimately it does little else to distinguish itself in the crowded thriller field.

The major failing of Full Ratchet is a muddled plot where even at the end I’m not entirely sure what they were fighting for or why they were fighting. Silas is engaging enough as an action hero, but he doesn’t really seem overly competent, as is shown later in the book when he partners up with Harmony, a woman hired to find him for murky reasons, who proves to be seemingly much better prepared, skilled, and financed than Silas.

A significant plot point is Silas meeting the brother he didn’t know he had in a small town outside of Pittsburgh. The meeting is part of Silas’s reason for taking a job that leads him to Pittsburgh, but both brothers seem to quickly become very reliant on each other and far too trusting. Silas’s brother Dave is just too inconsistent of a character for me to like or trust him. He makes a big deal about his “baby” a souped up race car that he only drives to race, but ends up driving around in (somewhat out of necessity) for most of the book with no reference to his earlier misgivings. His treatment of his friends, even viewed through Silas’s somewhat forgiving eyes, is too unlikeable for him to be a sympathetic character.

Cooper does several things well in this book. The description of Pittsburgh as a contrast from major metropolis to rusting steel belt city, as well as his description of the more rural suburbs and surrounding countryside have an authentic and genuine feel to them. The action scenes, gunfights and car chases are all exciting and well-paced (with the exception of one eye-roll inducing scene above a closed auto body shop). The villains, however, don’t really have a face to them. They are generic Russian thugs, one of whom is exceptionally tall and strong, but their motives or their employers motives are never sufficiently conveyed. At least not in a way that identifies a clear path for Cade to counter.

The writing here is solid, but the plot is too muddled and the characterization, particularly of the secondary characters could have been stronger. Full Ratchet is an interesting read, but it doesn’t really motivate me to pick up more books in the series.

I was provided an advance copy of this book.… (plus d'informations)