The Plan: Run for Your Life by E.W. Blythe
For Jack Davis, a Naval officer and pilot stationed on the USS Eisenhower, a close-call landing has him packing his bags and headed home to Washington D.C. for remedial practice. He’s bummed, of course, because “he had always been a better than average pilot with a good landing record. Now, he was unsure about his future in the squadron.” And it’s precisely that uncertainty that lands Jack in the wrong place at the wrong time, leading to the whirlwind plot in E.W. Blythe’s thriller The Plan: Run for Your Life (Barnes & Noble Press), Book One of “The Plan” trilogy.
Back home in D.C., Jack seeks out an old friend, Bill Moore, who works at a political consulting firm. Jack is at the end of his second tour with the Navy, and Bill suggests Jack come and work with him at Rand Associates. They meet at a bar to discuss the idea, and Jack stays behind to mull everything over — his departure from service and the prospect of a new, high-paying job. His decision to sit in that particular bar will lead readers to lament, if only Jack had landed that plane, for the remainder of the novel.
ACCIDENTAL WITNESS, FATAL CONSEQUENCES
At the bar, Jack witnesses a seemingly innocuous conversation between a U.S. Senator and a freshman Congresswoman that turns out to be anything but when news of Congresswoman Susan Ellis’s murder breaks the next morning. One of the last few people to see Susan Ellis alive before the alleged home invasion, Jack spirals when he learns of the fatal mugging of bartender Caroline Walker as well as the disappearance of the bar manager at Martin’s Tavern. Jack can’t help but wonder: if someone wants every person who was at the bar that night dead, is he next?
Fearing his life is in danger, Jack does everything he can think of to protect himself. He switches over to using cash so he’s more difficult to track and installs a home security system. Then, he begins his own investigation; “if he was going to potentially be murdered for something he overheard, he might as well find out what it was all about.” All the while, the reader has begun to wonder if Jack isn’t just a little paranoid, but Blythe has a few surprises in store.
BLYTHE’S MANY PERSPECTIVES SURPRISE READERS
Although Jack is the focal character for much of the novel, Blythe makes use of a global point of view, zooming in and out on the various players and action. The tension builds as Jack becomes increasingly convinced someone is after him, but right as readers are about to write him off as delusional, Blythe introduces them to Mike, a professional hitman. Jack has managed to evade Mike’s signature neck snap thus far, but Mike’s client wants results without being implicated in the series of murders. The longer the investigation remains unsolved, the higher the chance his client will be found out. Aiming to kill two birds with one stone, Mike cooks up a devious scheme that will spare Jack’s life if only to let him rot in prison.
Now, Jack is on the run. What begins as a simple plan to keep him out of harm’s way turns into avoiding the D.C. Metro Police and the FBI, but even as Jack’s adversaries close in, this story is far from over.
INTRIGUE, POLITICS, ROMANCE, CONSPIRACY
Blythe delivers a novel that feels like three books in one. It is, of course, a thriller, filled with suspense as Jack tries to dodge both a contract killer and police custody. It’s also a police and legal procedural as Blythe takes readers inside the investigation from a variety of different angles and then into the courtroom. Making the stakes even higher, Blythe introduces a romance between Jack and Sara, a smart, kind and flirtatious woman from the IT department of Rand Associates who joins Jack on his perilous ride. At the center of everything is The Plan, the 11-page document that seems to be responsible for a string of murders, adding an element of political intrigue and conspiracy to Blythe’s plot.
Strap yourselves in, readers. Jack may not land that plane, but his story will land you in the middle of one wild adventure.
Loved it myself.