T R's Reviews > Damaged: A Tyler Zahn Prequel

Retired Air Force vet, Tyler Zahn is in between the life he knew in the military and married with a two children and moving forward. He’s divorced and one of his children is deceased, and to occupy his retired time he helps with SARs teams in Colorado. It is with the team we meet other characters: his supervisor and law enforcement officer Perez and volunteer friend Kristee. A foul-mouth hiker has an injured ankle who the team helps and it this woman who factors into the story a bit later when plans to blow up the water dam and tunnels come into play. Other characters: Sullivan – a man hired by a hippie tree hugging woman and Mandrake a man in prison round out the characters with additional ones to fill in along the story line. Sullivan is lulled in by a cushy amount of money and takes on a job, which requires Mandrake to break out of prison to help. The casting is entertaining and there were parts when Mandrake is first out – with what he’s eating and drinking – that had me laughing. This tightly written story brought all the characters together in a well-cast unfolding that kept me involved right down to the satisfying ending that tied all the parts together. I especially like the self-effacing protagonist, capable and talented in reality but haunted by PTSD and his relationship with Perez which knits through other books in this series. The author does a great job of inserting technical details into many parts of the story, about hiking, dealing with water works, navigating through police procedures and adding in past details to flush out the storyline and develop enduring characters, ones I’d want to hang with, have a beer with, shoot the breeze with and hear stories from. I’m glad there are other books from this talented author in this series that I’ll be able to instantly dig into.