Dead Man's Hand by Brad Taylor

Published by William Morrow on January 23, 2024

There’s a sameness to recent Pike Logan novels. It’s not uncommon for a thriller series to lose its freshness as the years pass. Pike Logan is almost a caricature of himself in Dead Man’s Hand. Fortunately, while the action scenes are nothing special, they are plentiful, so the novel will provide a quick fix for vicarious adrenalin junkies who enjoy tough guy novels.

Pike leads a team of tough guys (and his wife) on missions for a Taskforce that was set up to implement quick-strike reactions when there isn’t time to get (or the likelihood of obtaining) the congressional approval required by law. The Taskforce operates on the theory that political oversight just gets in the way of killing people who need to die quickly.

Over the course of the series, a formula has emerged. Pike is ordered to do something. He doesn’t like the order but he follows it until he doesn’t. Then Pike is ordered not to do something. Pike does it anyway because his gut tells him it’s the right thing to do, particularly if he decides that it is important to complete the mission that he didn’t want. Bad guys are killed, the world is saved, and everyone is happy until it all happens again in the next novel.

The bad guys in Dead Man’s Hand are Russians. A group of Ukrainians, unaffiliated with the Ukraine government, joins with a dissident team of Russian GRU operatives in a plot to assassinate Putin. More power to them, I say, except there’s a hitch. Putin, egomaniacal mad dictator that he is, has handed out launch codes to four trusted people with instructions to annihilate the world if he dies. This assures the mutual destruction of those who oppose Putin and everyone else in the world.

Putin is aware that rogue members of the GRU want to kill him but doesn’t know the details. Russians loyal to Putin (or so he believes) are sent to mop up the rogue Russians, which also pits them against the Ukrainians who are in league with the disloyal GRU spies.

The initial plan to kill Putin is a bit vague. At its inception, it might involve a remote-operated machine gun or drones. The weapons will likely be acquired from Israel. The connection to Israel allows Pike to bring Shoshana into the story. Shoshana is a crazy ex-Mossad agent who has worked with Pike and Jennifer in the past. Everyone is afraid of Shoshana, in part because she is likely to kill people if she doesn’t like the color of their aura.

The story is just what a series fan will expect, in part because the fan will have read it over and over. Pike’s team chases Russians and Ukrainians, not quite knowing who the bad guys are. Pike’s team defends itself against Russians and Ukrainians who shoot at them until they figure out who the good guys are. More shootouts ensue until they save the world. Along the way, Pike argues with everyone and does what he wants, although he occasionally admits that he might be wrong and revises “what he wants” accordingly.

Like many tough guys, Pike is always angry. Like many tough guys, Pike’s first instinct is to punch the person who happens to be triggering his anger. Like many tough guys, Pike doesn’t like to be told what to do, which makes one wonder why Pike joined the military before abandoning military life for Taskforce life. Pike wants to do “what’s right,” provided he is the determiner of right and wrong. In that regard, the only interesting aspect of Dead Man’s Hand is the conflict between Pike’s desire to help Ukraine defend itself from Putin and his desire not to allow the Ukrainians and rogue Russians to start a nuclear war.

Pike is aggravated throughout the novel because he’s reasonably been told that his masters want to know what’s happening and he should refrain from killing anyone until the repercussions of his actions can be understood. He can’t deal with the mission because he’s not allowed to be an action hero. Okay, that’s not anything that Brad Taylor says, but that’s what I read into Pike’s oft-stated grumbles about bureaucrats who haven’t ever killed anyone.

Pike has become a tedious character who is defined by his anger and arrogance more than any other characteristic. Back when Pike was developing a relationship with Jennifer, her ability to calm him (her feminine willingness to see other perspectives balancing his rage-fueled masculine need to dominate) was cheesy but at least worked as a means of character development. Now it’s just another cliché in a series that no longer has the power to surprise.

Still, Taylor always writes fast-moving action scenes. The story is predictable and the novel loses its energy before it reaches an underwhelming climax, but I’m recommending it to readers who enjoy tough guy action for its own sake. If you’ve read some Pike Logan novels (I’m a fan of the early ones) and are looking for something different than those you’ve already read, this one isn’t for you.

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