Dale is a crooked cop. It started slow, but grew like a cancer and now he can’t get out from under the thumb of Tat, a would-be kingpin in every vice he can turn a profit with. And now Dale’s number is up—the top brass knows. But instead of getting busted, Dale gets an offer. The mayor’s daughter is being held by Tat in his fortress built from an abandoned office tower. They want her back but if … back but if they storm the gates, Lauren is as good as dead. So they’re sending Dale on what could very likely be a suicide mission: infiltrate Tat’s fortress and bring her out alive.
If the Mayor even really wants her alive…
Floor by floor Dale and Lauren have to fight off an increasingly difficult and dangerous set of obstacles.
Meanwhile, Dale’s wife has her own troubles and some of the drug kingpin’s goons are only adding to an already rough day.
The clock is ticking down along with the floors of the building and escape is looking less and less likely. But to save her, and to save himself, he must make it all the way down.
Praise for ALL THE WAY DOWN:
“Last chances, double crosses, and a cop who has to shoot his way out of a fortified skyscraper—what’s not to love? All The Way Down rips. It’s fast and fierce, like a guitar solo that hits all the sharpest notes.” —Meg Gardiner, author of Into the Black Nowhere
“Eric Beetner’s All the Way Down is everything a reader could want from an action thriller—fast, suspenseful, and the right kind of outrageous. The stakes ratchet up with each harrowing surprise for crooked cop Dale and reporter Lauren, as they work together to escape the urban fortress of the city’s maniacal kingpin. If every suicide mission was this much fun, we’d all sign on.” —Glen Erik Hamilton, author of the Van Shaw thrillers
“Beetner’s Dale Burnett is a dirty cop trying to rescue someone from the clutches of the ruthless criminal he’s been accepting money from…and fifteen floors of non-stop action follows! Beetner is a master at throwing more and more trouble at his heroes, and in All the Way Down, Dale gets hit with everything imaginable. No, check that—you will not have imagined what happens on a couple of these floors. This book is an absolute blast.” —Frank Zafiro, creator and editor of A Grifter’s Song
“Relentless.” —Rob Hart, author of the Ash McKenna series
more
Action packed wallop of a noir thriller! The kind of book you need to buckle in to read. Highly recommended.
“All The Way Down” by Eric Beetner features Dale Burnett, a police officer on the take, with both professional and personal life falling apart. As he rides the elevator up the office of the chief of police, he is sure that they know everything and that he is on his way to jail, and he knew how things end in jail for a crooked cop. Well, they do know everything, but he is not on his way to jail, he is on his way to somewhere much more dangerous. Lauren, the mayor’s daughter, a reporter for an on-line news service, has been kidnapped by the town’s biggest crime boss, and coincidently the source of Burnett’s payoff money. Getting her back is the only way he can keep his job and perhaps his life.
There is a lot at stake for everyone involved, and conversation drives the plot. Characters and details emerge little by little about everything including, drug trafficking, political corruption, impropriety, and the unfettered drive for news, any kind, in an economic downturn.
Beetner gives readers vivid descriptions of the places:
“The wall paper crisscrossed with shiny gold hexagons. The carpet was a blood red. Mirrors hung so close to each other the room had a funhouse quality to it. It was enough to give you a complex, all those reflections of yourself all at once.
The people who inhabit them:
“His buzz cut gave his head the look of a howitzer shell. His teeth shone white in his mouth except where gold caps covered both his canines.”
And the way they die:
“She spasmed like a cell phone on vibrate for a second while the shots were pelting her body, then fell still, sinking deeper into the cushions.”
The title “All The Way Down” comes from the single completed building in the abandoned office complex, a thin rectangle with fifteen floors, and the death, destruction, and mayhem, that happen on every floor of the high rise fortress from the top all the way down to the basement.
“All The Way Down” is a thrill ride with plenty of nonstop action by the good guys, bad guys, and those in-between. I was given a review copy by Eric Beetner, Down & Out Books, and NetGalley. However, it may not be for everyone. Readers should be advised that there is “strong” language along with copious overall violence and carnage that will leave readers exhausted from the exploits. (Hence the rating)
All the Way Down by Eric Beetner
Fast-paced action-packed thrill ride from beginning to end!
When a dirty cop is sent in to save the Mayor’s daughter from the local gang leader it is more than likely a suicide mission for Dale Burnett BUT he is willing to go for it as he feels he has nothing to lose and perhaps some bad karma to turn the opposite direction. With a multi-story building for Dale and Lauren fighting off bad guys on every floor of the building the situations they find themselves in are hair raising and sometimes lethal…for those they encounter. Little does Dale know that his wife, on the outside, is also contending with bad guys asked to bring her in and the situations she finds herself in are just as lethal as those of those inside the building her husband is trying to escape. With twists and turns and a well laid out plot this is a book I could not put down. I have to say that though this is the first book I have read by this author it will not be the last.
Thank you to NetGalley and Down and Out Books for the ARC – This is my honest review.
5 Stars