Jeff Abbott: Adrenaline

This is the first book that I have read by Jeff Abbott and he explores how far a man will go to get his family back when they have been kidnapped by a terrorist.

It started out as a normal day for Sam Capra, he kissed his pregnant wife goodbye before he leaves to give a presentation to the Company (aka CIA) but he receives a disturbing phone call before he can even start. His wife, Lucy is in trouble and needs to see Sam NOW! As Sam races after Lucy his life is turned upside down when the building he is working in explodes and Sam sees Lucy being taken away by a Scared Man. Sam and Lucy are branded a traitors and while Sam is in the hold of the company who try to break him to admit he and Lucy are a traitors, all he can think of is finding Lucy and the bundle, and this is what drives him to keep going to survive. He is willing to do anything, kill anyone and work for anyone if it mean getting his family back and away from the Scared Man and what ever this man stand for.

This book was great, and the title really fits the name, as Sam Capra is living off non stop Adrenaline through the entire book. It had some great interesting and unexpected twists and turns as Sam fight through everything to find his wife and "the bundle". At the core basis of this book, it is really about Love and Sam willing to do anything to find his family and this includes "taking care" of the people who are trying to get in his way. Abbott really has a bit of everything in this book, but he does not overwhelm himself which is hard to achieve. This book has some great mysteries and surprises throughout that it really keeps you guessing.

I liked Sam as a character, he questions himself when he has to do something bad, and he wonders how his wife and child would see him as if they knew the terrible things that he had done to find him. Sam is an interesting character as he has had field experience but then became an intelligence analyst when he was no longer needed in the field. I think the addition of the analyst role, allows Sam to see things differently and pay more attention to small details and makes him a more well rounded character instead of just a shooting machine. I liked the introduction of Sam using his parkour (the building jumping people, for a video reference watch the first scene in Casino Royale or check out youtube) training through out the novel. It was interesting to see how this training shaped his thought process in difficult situations.

I really like Milia as a character, she is mysterious, deadly and has no problem with hurting those that she deems has done something wrong and she has learned in her past not to trust the justice system. Though her own thoughts of justice, are what hinder in times when she needs to be focusing more on the mission at hand.

I think that Abbott did a good job in his creation of Simon's organization and character. Simon is a true form of evil human, someone who is charismatic enough to get people to follow what he wants done, and if that is not enough he has other ways of persuasion in order to brain wash those he has either taken in or kidnapped. You never really know what Simon's true plan, motivation or what he will do next, which makes him very unpredictable.

The on aspect I question within the books is realism in of some of the action scenes. This may be due to my lack of knowledge of what is achievable in parkour, though watching some of the videos on youtube, there seems to be some crazy things that can be achieved, I just do not know enough about it to determine if what Sam was doing was even plausible. Something that also hindered the realism of the actions scenes if often Sam finds himself bringing only his fists to a gun fight. This is not to say that Sam does not get hurt, actually Abbott does a good job of allowing his character to get hurt both mentally and physically (on that note look up water boarding), but Sam seems to get out of gun fights relatively unscathed and seems to be able to incapacitate or kill others, while all this shooting is going on.

From start to finish you will not want to put this book down. You will get attached to Sam Capra as you will feel his need to find his wife and child and his willingness to do anything to achieve this. I am looking forward to my next Abbott read. If you are looking for an action adventure thriller novel that has more substance to it than just nonstop action, then this book is for you.

Enjoy!!!

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