Deep State (Jason Trapp, #1) By Jack Slater

Fantastic action,exciting characters!! Only a beta read..Awaiting final copy!!

Merged review:

Explosive Thriller With A 'Dead' CIA Operative

This is an intriguing story with interesting characters and explosive action! Jason Trapp is the most lethal CIA agent in the field! Until he is betrayed on an Op, his partner killed and with his body never found, Jason is dead to the world...
Terrorists attack on a train, intent to kill as many as possible. No one can find where they came from or who they are with, all seem to be regular men with no black marks on their records. Jason doesn't have to care anymore, but he is a patriot, so when terrorists strike in Boston, right in front of him, he takes off to save innocents! He kills two men which unearths him to Langley, and he is soon on his way there, where he listens to his old boss and agrees to help with this new attack.
A fantastic story from a new author, I can not wait to see what Jason gets into next!!! Jack Slater There's a class of fiction called Beach Reads, typically thrillers that read well and are packed with POWs and WHAMs that keep your attention as the children swim out into shark territory. There's absolutely nothing wrong with these booksâ€"in fact, they are a common soporific that we all enjoy. Their appeal, in part, is that they follow a formula so you know where you're going and can sit back for the ride.

Occasionally, these beach reads are really very good, going in the direction you expectâ€"the world is savedâ€"but filled with tension and with a tightly written script that keeps your interest high and your adrenalin flowing. Deep State, John Salter's debut novel, perfectly fits this description. If you like geopolitical thrillers with a quality narrative, this one is a good choice.

The hero, Jason Hangman Trapp, is a CIA special ops agent just six months out of the Company. Trapp resigned from the CIA after a mission to Yemen where he and his partner were sent into an ambush set up, he believes, by the CIA. The partner died and Jason thinks that they are out to kill him too. And it sure seems like itâ€"wherever Trapp goes there's someone stalking him.

Everyone heroic in this novel is Marine-Corps related: Jason and his deceased partner; President Charles Nash, just two weeks in office; Nadine Dani Carter, female FBI agent whose father was in the Corps. For those who didn't read the memo, these are the Designated Good Guys. The evildoers are generally Middle-Eastern terrorists and those shadowy people who pull the terrorists' strings. The shadowy characters take top billing in Deep ZState.

Trapp is in a bar in Baltimore. The bar is owned by his ex-partner's brother and Jason is there to tell him how and why his brother died. But before he can, the TVs blare Breaking Newsâ€"an Amtrak passenger train in Colorado has been attacked by two terrorists, one at each end working toward the middle and killing the passengers. First responders are then killed by a third terrorist, a sniper. The three terrorists flee on motor bikes leaving hundreds of corpses behind.

This is a major Up Yours for the U. S. but it's not a one-off attack: this news is quickly followed by reports of other terrorist attacks. The FBI's J. Edgar Hoover building in Washington is blown upâ€"agent Carter killed the suicide-vest wearer but not before he pushed the button. Boston's TD North basketball arena is attacked by terrorists (I hope this doesn't kill Celtics ticket sales). A dozen high schools are attacked with great loss of life. Washington air space is closed down but a fighter pilot in the air obeys a fake order to bomb a site where Jason and top CIA/NSA officials are gathered. This multiplicity of attacks makes the 9/11 disaster look like child's play.

It turns out that someone has seriously compromised the NSA's computers via a newly-installed technology called Birdseye. Birdeye allows the integration of all intelligence into an AI assessment that provides scenarios describing the meaning of the dataâ€"a picture of what to expect. But the downside is that hackers who can insert false information into Birdseye can shape the picture to their advantage, and can also have access to the entire array of intelligence information. Evildoers can know everything that the FBI, CIA, NSA and ebery other three-letter agency knowsâ€"they have a universal wiretap.

False information is inserted into Birdseye that makes the FBI and NSA appear to be managing a vast plot to undermine the U. S. government. The credibility of the information is so high that the Directors of the NSA and FBI are discredited and U. S. Marshalls arrest high-level figures in the FBI's Washington office as potential saboteurs.

This collection of events comes to be called Bloody Monday. The result is chaosâ€"nobody can believe any communications from within their agency or from any other agency, and the entire U. S. government is pitted against itself in a very clever disinformation program that has the U. S. government flying blind while the enemy is fully informed about our intentions, responses and actions.

But who is this enemy? Trapp is certain that it's not terrorists like ISIS or Al Queda: the terrorists are simply the boots on the ground used to shape a narrative familiar to the idiot Americans: do not trust your government, or Middle-Easterners. The technology required to compromise the entire U. S. government's communications is too far beyond the ability and finances of any or all private organization (except, perhaps, Elon Musk). This means that it is a state-level program, and, possibly the chaotic beginning of a coup attempt within the U. S. government.

Jason Trapp finds himself drafted back into the CIA by its Director. When news arrives that the NSA Director is flying into Andrews AFB carrying vital information for an emergency meeting with the President, Trapp goes to Andrews to assess the Director's security. The bad guys have a plan to assassinate the Director as he exits his plane at Andrews. Trapp arrives at Andrews in time to disrupt that sniper operation, but the NSA Director is killed in a massive firefight that breaks out on a bridge near the baseâ€"a firefight between police, FBI, and NSA special ops (Scorpion) agents on one side and, on the other side, a large assassination team of Israeli mercenaries tasked to kill the Director.

Dani Carter, the agent in the FBI's Washington office, finds herself in an unexpected position. The arrest of most higher-ups in the Washington FBI office has stripped it of leadership and the President appoints her as Special Agent in Charge (SAC). Trapp and Carter will eventually team up like Supergirl and Superman to foil the massive plot, and we will enjoy the story as it unfolds.

John Slater has written a solid story of intrigue and mayhem. He also tips a nod to what he has written when he writes, in regard to one scene of chaos,

This was like something out of an airport thriller.

Yes, it is. But it still stirs the adrenalin if not the little gray cells. English



When the book starts we follow a couple of terrorists on their way to do their horrible terror business. Which will take place on a train full of people on the way from California to Chicago.

Then we meet the hero of our story. Kind-of-retired CIA agent Jason Trapp. He's not really retired. He's more dead than retired. At least the CIA thinks he is. But suddenly it seems as if he's the only person who can save the day. Or save America.

I really liked reading this book. It was an interesting and exciting action blockbuster kind of book. Lots of mystery and lots of bad guys and good guys and shooting and killing. It's not something for readers who are afraid of blood and violence. ☺

I would say if you're a 40 year old American Vet-turned-high-school-ball-coach on his way to your sister's wedding in Hawaii - this will be the perfect book for you to read on the flight.

For a 40 year old German housewife it's a nice thriller - but it's a tiny bit too American and it has too much details about guns and vehicles and whatnot in it. But I still enjoyed reading it - and I will definitely read the next book too - because Jason Trapp is all sorts of hot and capable! ☺


♡ ♡



Deep State (Jason Trapp, #1) Good good good Another novel that appeared on my also bought by the same author page so I thought I’d try out Jack Slater’s first self-published novel (at first, I thought this was his debut work but later discovered he was once a traditional author with HarperCollins).

The writing was great and the story got straight into the action. The hero, Jason Trapp is a former CIA agent who goes by the handle Hangman,and he’s very competent at taking down bad guys and solving mysteries, and this is one hell of a mystery. Multiple terrorist strikes across mainland U.S. send the country into a state of panic and the Federal Government scrambling to understand why they had no pre-emptive intelligence as a warning, not wishing to repeat another 11 September terrorist attack.

Unfortunately, thousands die and the country falls into chaos. Sinister, nefarious force are behind the attacks and have taken control of the National Security Agency’s vast networks of intelligence to create missions suiting their own, and not the United States’ agenda.

I enjoyed this book particularly for its fresh approach to terrorism thriller fiction, and the rapid pace of the prose. Highly enjoyable. 

The Agency left him for dead.

Jason Trapp was the CIA's most lethal operative. A man of honor; a man whose terrible childhood forged him with an iron sense of right and wrong. His country gave him a career, a partner, and a way to mold that burning anger into righteous action.

And then someone crossed him, ripping his new life from his grasp. His partner's body is pulled from the wreckage, but Trapp's is never found.

Months later, terrorists attack an Amtrak train, slaughtering hundreds, and livestream the attack for the whole world to see. And then more attacks begin. Hundreds die. Then thousands. America is under siege.

It's not Trapp's job to care. Not anymore.

But he can't help it. And when he discovers his betrayal was just one move in a vast conspiracy that threatens to topple the US government...

Trapp vows to take his revenge.

⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯

Fans of Ryan, Reacher and Bourne will love betrayed CIA operative Jason Trapp, who stars in a pulse-pounding revenge thriller that threatens to be 2019's breakout hit. Deep State (Jason Trapp, #1)

I received an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I also purchased a digital copy from Amazon because I believe in compensating people for their creative work.

Deep State is not a bad book, especially for a first novel, but I am not in the target demographic for this type of book. I think if you enjoy Clancy, Eisler and that ilk, this may be your cup of tea. What if America's intelligence apparatus was hijacked and used against them? It would be a disaster. And if a megalomaniac used this all powerful tool to forward their own agenda? Someone who did not value life or love America. But fortunately, there are a rare few that can stand against such a sinister plot. Dani, the FBI agent is unofficially recruited by anti-terrorist agent Jason Trapp, literally a ghost operative with an ax to grind. NSA computer scientist Dr. Greaves offers his unique services after his friend is murdered by mercenary forces. The idea of this NSA uber coder is somewhat reminiscent of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo #4.

This is my first Jack Slater novel, but it won't be my last. If you like Vince Flynn, Mark Greaney or Brad Thor, give Jack Slater a try. Although there are references to Yemen, most of the story is set in the United States.

Four and-a-half stars. Thrilling story with lots of action. I really liked this book and Jason Trapp, but I had 2 problems with it that interfered with the story:
1. The writer is obsessed with shooting people in the head; everyone was getting shot in the head or trying to shoot someone in the head.
2. Jason was always thinking about the past and his abusive father. It got very tiresome. I want the action to keep flowing, but Jason stops to think about his father beating his mother or him way too often. Review by 2shay..........🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟.....

Non-stop action!!

Jason Trapp is known by friends and enemies alike as the Hangman. How he got that name is a compelling story in itself. Why he’s now on a mission of revenge is another. But the real story is the most gosh awful, convoluted, amazing, dastardly conspiracy I’ve ever read.

Beautifully plotted, brilliantly researched, this book takes us only one step, maybe two, beyond what is possible today. It’s chilling.

It’s hard for me to give 5 stars to the first book in a series. There is always characters to introduce and backstories. This one is no exception, but it’s done on such a logical way that the flow and progression are enhanced, never disturbed. Even though this is a complex conspiracy, it’s easy to follow.

If you enjoy action/adventure, this is a great one. Grab your free copy and.....

Enjoy! Deep State (Jason Trapp, #1) If you like FBI/CIA thrillers where the protagonist is fighting his/her own frailties and dealing with issues of mistrust and paranoia, then this is the book for you. Jack Slater does a stupendous job of showing off his knowledge of spies without rubbing your nose in it. His character Jason Trapp is nearing the bottom of the barrel when he gets drawn into a tense situation which requires him to have some faith in people he'd lost faith in long ago. I would classify this as a true thriller and recommend anyone who likes this genre to give it a read. You will not be disappointed.