Echoes

Echoes by Jason Brant

What if the thoughts in your head were not your own?

When Lieutenant Asher Benson suffered a traumatic brain injury while stationed in Iraq, his doctors warned him that the symptoms would be life altering. They had no idea. As Ash recovered, a never ending barrage of voices began echoing in his mind, effectively crippling his life. Mistakenly treated for PTSD, Ash was honorably discharged and now lives in self-imposed, drunken isolation.

Five years later, Ash is still struggling to rejoin society. His desperate, lonely existence is maintained by a meager disability check and gallons of alcohol. As he's finally learning to control his burden, and making progress with the girl next door, Ash is thrust back into a life he thought he'd left behind. When unidentified intelligence agents abduct him from his apartment, he is plunged into a world of espionage and assassinations.

A unique terrorist is operating on U.S. soil, and the government needs Ash, and the malady that has plagued him for half a decade, to find him.

At roughly 30,000 words, Echoes is an edge-of-your-seat, page-turning thriller with the pacing of The Terminator and the quirky characters of Carl Hiaasen.

I found this book because of Pixel of Ink. Elle Casey is exactly right in her review of this book. I was constantly laughing at the jokes made. Is ninety good? Most definitely YES.

This book reminds me of Savages by Don Winslow. If you haven't read either of these books you should go find them immediately. It’s the first time in a while that I didn’t see the twist coming until the characters found out. It made me feel real stupid because I’m usually questioning everyone’s motives and actions.

Ash is a character that I definitely connected with right out of the gate. I also hope that there are more stories coming, because it ended with so much potential left. But if this is Ash’s ending I think he did a pretty good job finding redemption that he wasn’t looking for.

I give Echoes 5 out 5.