Civil Terror: Gridlock by J. Luke Bennecke
Published by Jaytech on March 6, 2018
Pages: 463
Format: ARC
Goodreads
The autonomous vehicle revolution has arrived. So have the terrorists.
Meet Jake Bendel, a civil engineer in the state of California. Tired of slogging through the infamous LA traffic to get to and from work, he and a team of experts have designed a roadway system for self-driving cars — negating thousands of traffic-related deaths each year and reducing commute times to minutes instead of hours.
The elation stops when a Syrian terrorist group weaponizes the system and devises a scheme to kill off thousands of Americans in one day. A brilliant psychopath, the leader of the cell, Viktor, hears the voices of both his deceased mother and his god, who influence his every move. While he and his brothers ruthlessly annihilate Americans, all in the name of Allah, Viktor plants evidence and sways the public into convicting Jake of these horrendous crimes against humanity.
One rogue FBI agent believes Jake is innocent. The two discover a mole buried deep inside the FBI and go off the grid to stop Viktor from attacking thousands of innocent drivers in what promises to be the mother of all terror. Can they stop him in time?
A gripping tale from the first page to the last, Civil Terror: Gridlock will pull you to the edge of your seat as your blood pressure skyrockets and you are a taken along a journey that twists and turns its way to the finish line.
Civil Terror: Gridlock is a fast-paced story that centers around Jake Bendel who is a successful civil engineer. He’s a member of a team of six who designed and put into action a national self-driving network. This group of civil engineers have devised highways that control the vehicles — meaning no more traffic jams.
A terrorist cell impairs the system, which causes widespread destruction and a rising death toll. Jake ends up being the scapegoat of the media’s uproar since he is the only civil engineer remaining alive. This threatens his chances of finding the true criminals and increases his chance of getting killed by those same criminals who have already killed his wife. Jake’s daughter is missing and he and a really good hacker are the only ones who might be able to stop the next terrorist act from occurring.
Maybe Christmas just isn’t the best time to be reading a book like this one, I’m just not sure. While I understand this book will be the first in a series of four books, I’m not so sure this book was for me and I don’t think I could read the rest of the series either. You’ll have to decide for yourself if the book is for you. I don’t think futuristic highways and self-moving cars are my “thing”. Another issue that seemed to be odd to me is this: Both the author himself and the protagonist in this story (Jake) live in California, they both work as civil engineers, they both went to the same schools, have older daughter….. hmmmmmmmm…
J. Luke Bennecke is a native Californian and a 25-year veteran civil engineer who has spent his career helping people by improving transportation systems in Southern California. Like most commuters, he longs for the day when traffic congestion is a thing of the past and highway fatalities are a distant memory. He has a BS in civil engineering from Cal Poly Pomona, an MBA from Cal State San Bernardino, a private pilot’s certificate, and is a partner in the successful firm, Southstar Engineering, based in Riverside.
He has been happily married to the woman of his dreams, Tammy, for two-and-a-half-decades and enjoys spending time with his grown daughters.
I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for my review. I was not required to post a positive review, just an honest one, which I have done.
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