Keep Calm

Author: Mike Binder

If you like Robert Bourne, if you adore boom bang action, fast paced and plot heavy with characters that flash into motion, you will love Keep Calm.  A debut novel, Binder is mesmerizing from page one in this crime buster based in London with ex-cop Adam Tatum as the family man protagonist caught up in a set up to kill Britain’s prime minister Roland Lassiter.

Adam Tatum knows a lot about drama.  An ex Michigan detective, Tatum was involved in a union scandal when he broke into the governor’s house while in a Union protest that goes bad.  It seems the governor was not supposed to be home, but he was and Tatum ends up in a Federal prison for three months.  And then suddenly he is vindicated and the charges are dropped.  His wife Kate and two children, Trudy, 16, and Billy, 8, have suffered through Adam’s egotistical attempt at politics and are angry and hurt.  When Kate’s estranged father Gordon Thompson in London offers a substantial job with Heaton Global Investments and with nothing else on the horizon, Adam resettles his family to Illinois and begins his commute as a seller of institutional retirement packages.

There is a caveat, however, to the job.  Gordon has no one left but his daughter Kate and Kate left London to live in the US many years ago.  Gordon wants Kate and her family to come back to London and has invested in a strange plot to manipulate her and his grandchildren back home to England.  The job offer has been made through Gordon’s old friend David Heaton, owner of HGI, a billionaire and a corrupt politician.  Heaton is heavily connected with the PM and his contingents at 10 Downing Street.

Adam is told to attend a meeting in London for HGI being held at the PM’s residence, 10 Downing Street and his wife and children are allowed to go also.  Adam knows something is not right: he is new, does not know the business yet, and this is a crucial meeting to lock down a huge retirement package for HGI with the signature of the prime minister to finish the deal.  As Adam starts to feel re-victimized, Kate and the children are excited.  Kate gets to see her father after twenty years and the children get to meet their only grandfather.

As Gordon enfolds Adam into a horrifying plot that includes everyone close to the prime minister, including the Chancellor, Georgia Turnbull, the novel fast forwards into a brutal chase and escape scene for Adam and his family.

Brilliantly done, with a plot that sweeps no one under the rug, Binder titillates and thrills as Adam Tatum and his family come undone as they are caught up in an assassination attempt on the PM’s life, and are whirled into a political labyrinth that includes the highest politician’s in England.  His only chance is a daring British police detective, Davina Steel, who is also being caught up in an affair with one of the players, Georgia Turnbull, who will take over as PM if Lassiter folds.

Loved it!

Ratings are based on a 5-star scale 

Overall: 4

Review by Broad “A” 

We received a product to facilitate our review. All opinions are our own

DETAILS

• Keep Calm: A Thriller is available at Amazon.com and other booksellers.