A Team Of Three by Brad Lee


A Team Of Three by Brad Lee
Publisher: Simply Sensible Entertainment
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Action/Adventure
Rating: 4 stars
Reviewed by Fern

Freedom isn’t free.

America’s newest enemy launches an audacious plan to incapacitate the country. A never-before-seen danger is about to be unleashed on an unsuspecting public. And the world faces a crisis unlike any before.
Can intelligence analyst Haley put the puzzle together in time from the safety of her office – or is she meant to risk it all as a field asset?

Is Axe, a former Navy SEAL, capable of overcoming a foe with nothing to lose?
The clues are cleverly hidden. The threats are terrifying.

And the stakes have never been higher. For the USA, the world, Axe, and Haley.
They are on their own, in deep, and desperate.

All they have is each other, their dedication, and their skills… but will that be enough to prevent death and destruction?
Join them for their most dangerous mission yet.

It was meant to be a fairly simple – albeit covert – missions. Axe would break into a Mexican cartel’s mansion, rescue the American nurse being held kidnapped there and with Kelton driving the getaway boat the three of them would return to America, safe and undiscovered. As Axe and Hayley know all too well – the only easy day was yesterday.

I have absolutely loved the first two books in this series – A Team Of One and A Team Of Two – and so I had very high expectations for this third book. I was not disappointed. This is quickly growing to be both my new favourite author and series.

While I do feel this book can be read by itself, I admit to having a stronger and quicker emotional connection to the team members and small cast of characters because of the previous installments. I don’t feel they would be necessary to read to thoroughly enjoy this book, though I can see sooner or later the weight of these life altering situations and the shared history will mean readers will need some of the background knowledge and not simply be able to pick up anywhere in the series. We’re not there yet – but I can see that might occur sometime soon.

Similarly to the previous two books I loved that this is a fast paced, action oriented adventure and mystery story. There is a giant plot going on overhead, with a number of working parts and links. I was pleased this time – unlike in the second book – we learn more about the big picture as Haley and Axe do and I think this helped give the plot and momentum of the story a more linear feel to it. I admit I prefer this style of storytelling and while the back and forth of the second novel is still good, my preference is the style shown in this and the first book.

The characters are believable and relatable. While Hayley is almost preternaturally smart and Axe unbelievably brave and focused, I could relax and just go with the flow on these points when really I don’t necessarily need a real-life type of person in my adventure and espionage style stories. We want our heroes to be larger than life. Axe was certainly in dangerous situations and Hayley had to work hard to analyse her data and put the puzzle together, but we do want them to get there in the end before the bad guy wins.

I feel readers who are happy with action paced, fast moving and addictive stories where it’s clear from the beginning that the good guy will win – they’ll just need to work for it – then this should be a book right up your alley. With plenty of action and adventure, a solid plot that grows and expands and some very memorable characters this was a brilliant read and one I will happily be adding to my keeper shelf. I can’t wait for more of this series and author. Recommended.

A Team Of One by Brad Lee


A Team Of One by Brad Lee
Publisher: Simply Sensible Entertainment Inc
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Action/Adventure
Rating: 5 stars
Reviewed by Fern

Former Navy SEAL “Axe” Southmark is enticed out of retirement to help the analyst and the President. But does he have what it takes to save the world?

As a Navy SEAL, Axe was trained to never give up. But after fifteen years on the front lines, it was time to let younger, faster men take the reins.

When he’s enlisted to help the President’s niece search for both a terrorist on the loose and a traitor in the government, he doesn’t hesitate.

It’s what he does: protects the vulnerable and kills bad guys.

With New York City threatened by a virtuoso bomber, there’s plenty of both to be done.

Will they be able to stop a madman before it’s too late? And is there more to the plot than meets the eye?

Find out in this wild ride of a story.

Former Navy SEAL, Axe is trying to settle into civilian life and find his niche when a former colleague reaches out with an enticing offer from left field. The President’s niece has uncovered some unusual activity in her job as a junior analyst, but unwilling to be treated differently she knows she needs more data. As Haley and Axe begin to uncover more, they realise this goes far deeper – and higher, politically – than either of them could have believed. Can they save New York and the country?

I purchased this book on a whim, having never heard of the author before and boy am I glad I did. This is a deliciously woven story with some excellent characters and a solid pace. I enjoyed the fact a little time was spent at the start showing us who Axe is and what he’s capable of. While still enjoyable the first few chapters were more of a scene-setting pace, easing the reader in and allowing them to get conformable with the author’s writing style and get to know the characters. Readers should also be aware that while this book does have a strong military theme the author has seemed to take great care to keep it primarily plot and character focused – there is plenty of gun, action and military detail here, but the characters and plot always seem to take the primary focus which I loved.

Pretty soon though I found the pace grew quicker and more action orientated. By the time we reached the middle of the story I found it exceptionally difficult to put the book down and to go about daily life. As more pieces of the puzzle came together – and as the Big Bad Plan began to take action – the pace really skyrocketed and all I wanted was to read the next chapter and then the next. Be prepared to stay up later than you expected for this one. It’s been quite some time (like a year or more) since I’ve stayed up into the very early hours on a workday just to read “a little bit more” but I truly just couldn’t wait to find out what happened next.

I really felt the author had a good blend of action and adventure along with plot and characterization. I’m always a little nervous of military-heavy sorts of books because while I enjoy some strong details in the story, I find often military-based outlooks can be a bit gun or weapon heavy. This book had a really good balance I feel, it was realistic and detailed enough to satisfy readers who want every piece of information, but the characters and plotting were also detailed – and fast paced enough – to not have me feel bogged down by this. I also felt that while the “taking over the world” sort of overall plot is not very new, this was a different enough take on that to feel fresh and the action and characters certainly kept my attention focused and I didn’t need to skip forward.

Finally, I also was seriously impressed with some of the plot twists towards the end of the book. A section revolving around the president in particular really impressed me and – for me personally at least – it was a unique, outside-the-box type of solution that I’ve never read before. Even now, days after finishing this book I’m still turning it over in my mind and thinking about the book as a whole and how some of these plot aspects unwound. I found the book as a whole exceptional.

I thoroughly enjoyed this first book and was very happy to see it is part of a series. I had ordered the next two books and the first in a different series by this author before I’d even reached the half way point of reading this. I am quite eager to see what’s in store for Axe and Haley in the next installment. A really enjoyable and fast paced read. Recommended.