Signal: A Sam Dryden Novel
By: Patrick Lee
Rating: 5 of 5
“Signal” is the first book I have read by Patrick Lee. I will shortly rectify that by purchasing at least four of his prior books, including “Runner” which is the first in the Sam Dryden series. I had no problems whatsoever picking up the action in this second book in the series. I had no idea there was a prior book and nothing in this book appears to have relied too heavily on “Runner.” I often read books in the middle of a series and most of the time, it takes a considerable part of the book to catch up. I was extremely pleased that that was not the case here.
I read this book in a single afternoon/evening – not because it was short – but because I simply could not put it down. The main character, Sam Dryden is ex-military and ex-special ops. He has left that world behind and is trying to pick up the pieces of his life after personal events that almost crushed him. He gets a call from an ex-comrade, Claire Dunham, and is asked to drop everything and meet her at a certain place. As he trusts her implicitly, he does has asked. At that point, everything starts to go haywire. I don’t want to provide any spoilers to the plot as I feel it is so unusual and compelling. While there are elements of almost science fiction thrown in, they are written into the plot in a way that makes you feel that the unbelievable can actually be true.
There are good guys and there are bad guys. There are parts that made me tear up (that’s okay, girls can tear up at sad stuff.) What’s unusual is that most male authors don’t generally write things that are quite so touching for me. I am used to a lot of action and shoot-ups (which this book also contains) but Patrick Lee has given his characters a depth that is unusual in an action thriller. I find the two female characters to be as three dimensional as the primary male character. I could understand them as women and could see why they were behaving the way they did – again something really rare for me as a female reading a thriller written by a man.
While I enjoyed the characters, it is still the plot that kept me hanging on chapter by chapter. I frankly could not put it down until I came to the end. Admittedly, that was somewhere in the wee hours of the morning but that was okay as I had the day off the next day. I found the plot to be engrossing and had to bite my tongue not to tell my husband about what I was reading so he could enjoy the book after I was done with it.
It is always great to find a new (to me) author whose prior works I can enjoy right away and whose future works I can look forward to with a tad of impatience. Patrick Lee has certainly moved into that category for me and I recommend the book to anyone high school age and older who wants to read a well written suspenseful thriller.
I received a complimentary copy of this book via the publisher.
“Signal” is the first book I have read by Patrick Lee. I will shortly rectify that by purchasing at least four of his prior books, including “Runner” which is the first in the Sam Dryden series. I had no problems whatsoever picking up the action in this second book in the series. I had no idea there was a prior book and nothing in this book appears to have relied too heavily on “Runner.” I often read books in the middle of a series and most of the time, it takes a considerable part of the book to catch up. I was extremely pleased that that was not the case here.