Dead Man Switch

“Dead Man Switch” by Matthew Quirk is a covert operations thriller with a terrifying twist – the threats are now in the United States. It is both riveting and compellingly frightening as current and former members of a U.S. covert operations team die accidentally, in the U.S., but under circumstances too suspicious to be mere accidents. Who is killing the families and members of this “black-ops” operation, and how can it possibly be stopped without putting everyone in danger? Perhaps it can’t. I will not give away the many twist and turns (and they are MANY) in the plot, but no one is who they seem to be, and no one can be trusted. Right from the start, people who are dead, or about to be dead, are not dead, but then, maybe they are; it’s complicated. Those complications are the crux of the sensational conspiracy. The action is precisely described and technically detailed. There is violence but without excessively graphic gore. It won’t give you a stress-induced headache because of the blood and guts -- just a regular nail-biting headache from chills, thrills, anxiety, stress, murder and speculation about what could possibly happen next. Just when you want to stop and catch your breath, something changes dramatically. There are diversions and complications all along the way to a tragic ending. I received a copy of “Dead Man Switch” from Matthew Quirk to review, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. This is the second book in the John Hayes series, the first being “Cold Barrel Zero” which I also highly recommend. It is not necessary to have read the first book in order to appreciate this one. Contextual references throughout the book fill in relevant background without wasting pages and pages rehashing the first book. Plan your schedule carefully; once you start “Dead Man Switch” you will not be able to put it down.