Power Pack

Power Down is Ben Coes' first novel, and it's very strong start out of the gate. It draws a complimentary cover blurb from top thriller writer Vince Flynn, and if Flynn actually read the book and means what he said (in the publishing world one may never be completely sure of this), then it's some high praise indeed.

Coes earns his kudos with the story of simultaneous assaults on a U.S. company's oilfield production facilities off the coast of Colombia and a hydroelectric generating plant in Canada. The destruction seems the first step in a plan to cripple U.S. power production, leaving the nation unable to afford to fight overseas or intervene in areas where it might have an interest. The terrorists made the mistake of leaving the platform supervisor and former Delta Force soldier Dewey Andreas alive. Andreas may not have much reason to love the country he believes turned its back on him after his faithful service, but he was fiercely loyal to his workers and their wholesale slaughter motivates him to avenge them. While he hunts down the killers, Washington operatives try to track down the mastermind behind the plot and prevent other attacks. Coes switches pretty cleanly between the world of bureaucracy, the world of the corporate boardroom and a gunbattle firefight and handles them all well.

Coes aims a little higher than a lot of thriller writers -- Andreas actually has an arc of character development over the course of Power Down. We see how greed may not only motivate the betrayal and treason the plotters need to succeed, but also how its presence may make their plans vulnerable. Although Andreas is, of course, a Man With a Past, there are a couple of elements to that past that aren't straight out of Suspense Novels for Dummies. But that doesn't mean Coes skimps on the violence -- blood sprays, skulls crack, bullets create their carefully-described mayhem when wielded by hero and ruthless villain alike. This is an action thriller, after all.

Power Down has some weaknesses -- we spend more time than we need on the oil rig before the terrorists strike, learning things about the crew we don't really need to know. There are a few too many similar (and similarly-named) characters to easily track. And the closeout, which seems meant to set up the sequel or maybe even a series, rings false. Coes may have in mind something like Lee Child's drifting adventurer Jack Reacher, but Andreas has worked on much too high a stage to make plausible the idea of him as a drifter who just happens to be saving the entire world or some such.

But those are quibbles. Power Down is an excellent first outing with a quick pace, well-thought-out plot with some new twists and enough brains to give it an interesting flavor. If Coes can keep it up in the sequel, Coup D'Etat, then thriller readers may have a new go-to series to pick up in between their Childs and Flynn fixes.