Patrick Lee's "The Breach" is delightful read, but a hard novel to characterize, combining elements of terrorism, special operations, and "X-Files" type mysteries. However one characterizes it, Lee keeps you on edge as it rips through an intricate plot peopled with characters of genuine complexity. Travis Chase is a former crooked-cop and ex-con. He has turned his back on his former life, and seeks a new one in Alaska, going off into the Alaskan Bush for a summer hike. While camping about 30 miles from the nearest settlement, he hears an unusual sound during a thunderstorm. Further on in his hike, he discovers a crashed unmarked 747. To his amazement, nobody is on the scene after 3 days, which he cannot fathom. Investigating the fuselage leads him to a murdered crew and dead passengers including the First Lady of the United States, who has left a note informing him that hostages have been taken and are being tortured nearby to secure a device of great national import which was on the plane. The note says for him to kill the hostiles and kill the survivors and call a number for help. Satellite phones have been destroyed, so Chase has to improvise, locating the people who caused the crash nearby. He observes a woman and a man being tortured. While the man is executed before he can intervene, Chase has contrived a plausible and clever plan to kill the hostiles, managing to save the woman, who has been severely injured. He knows the hostiles have other reinforcements and a helicopter nearby, but must strike out on a all-terrain vehicle for the nearest settlement with the injured girl. Eluding a helicopter, he manages to reach the village and call in assistance, but is unaware a deadly and literally invisible assassin has been launched to intercept and terminate him and the girl.
Chase proves himself a clever and resourceful foil for the assassins, and is taken prisoner by the organization Tangent after saving the girl. He is taken to a remote and secret base in the Wyoming wilderness where he is made aware of the unbelievable source of amazing technologies such as the invisibility suit. After undergoing a thorough interrogation, he is apprised of the true danger to the globe threatened by a traitor accessing alien technology, who always seems one step ahead of Tangent. Lee tantalizes us with glimpses of Chase's past, while he becomes romantically involved with Paige, the woman he rescued, as he tries to save the world.
Lee expertly weaves the various subplots to an exciting conclusion, which keeps one thinking "what-ifs" long after reading the last page. This is a very plausible and satisfying thriller, and I hope there will be a sequel, because Chase is an excellent protagonist.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
