Tiffany M. Davis

Disclaimer: I received a free galley from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

American Cage

Ted Galdi

ISBN: 978-0-9898507-1-1

Price: $2.99 ebook/$14.99 paperback

American Cage by Ted Galdi starts out as your typical jailbreak novel. Danny Marsh, Phil Zorn, and Monty Montgomery spent nine agonizing months planning a breakout of Thurgood L. Crick prison in Texas.  On the day of the breakout, everything goes smoothly…until it doesn’t.

When Monty is injured during the escape, the trio is forced to create a Plan B out of thin air. Unfortunately for them, Plan B coincides with an all-points bulletin about their escape across television and radio channels. The men are forced to do some things they preferred not to do in order to maintain their newfound freedom and achieve their primary goal: making it to Mexico.

Things go from bad to worse when Phil and Warren, his outside contact who provided crucial tools for the escape, decide to tweak the plan. Phil asks Danny to ask his family, which is wealthy, to give them $250,000 in cash in order to cover the price of the forged documentation that will be necessary for them to cross the border. Danny, who is estranged from his father, is reluctant to do so but finally does. Warren also decides to keep Monty as leverage for Phil and Danny’s return from the money pickup, which is a four-hour drive away. What happens during the drive–from the perspectives of Danny, Monty, and Danny’s father–is a tale of shame and redemption, as well as desperation and deliverance.

As a fan of psychological thrillers, I was pleasantly surprised by American Cage. There were plot twists that I didn’t see coming (especially the ending), and the characters were mostly well developed. Some were a bit too over the top, like Lieutenant John Ramos. I was more disappointed in the Phil Zorn character; it would have been interesting to get some of his point of view in the book, instead of seeing just his reactions to what the other characters were doing or saying. The addition of hitchhiker Jane Pilgrim was a nice touch.

Overall, I would recommend American Cage, particularly for fans of Harlan Coben and Jonathan Kellerman.

Thanks for stopping by.