An intriguing, fast paced thriller!!

What I liked: Fallout is full of action as it takes place over a 3 day period of time. A lot happens in those three days. Mr Merkel is a gifted writer and takes pains to ensure the reader is totally aware of each character and his descriptions seem spot on.

In most political thrillers I read there is a sense of distance as there is a completely imaginary President, Vice President and other leaders. Mr. Merkel doesn't follow that trend. He intimates based on his characters that this whole scenario is happening in "our" time with real people.  This made the story more believable to me and actually had me chuckling with some of the actions of the characters.

Don't get bogged down with the minutia of characters and timeframe.  Go into Fallout knowing it's a three day period of time and view points keep changing. Some of the chapters and view points seem to come out of left field but there is a tie in with all the info the author is providing. He's just doing it in a way that's it not a huge info dump.

There are many twists and turns in this story and the majority I did not see coming which to me, is the measure of a good thriller!

What I didn't like:  Fallout is billed as a Beck Casey thriller but from my observations, it's more of an ensemble cast and not just a main one. I felt Beck Casey has less leading lines than some of the other characters but it really didn't impact my enjoyment of the book.

The other thing readers might have a hard time with is ALL the different point of views and there are many and spread all over the map.  I initially had an extremely hard time keeping track of all the different characters and where they were and what they were doing. I hung in there and it became easier as I went along.  

While I would not say Mr. Merkel is on par with Tom Clancy or Vince Flynn, I would say, he's an excellent writer with great potential!!

I thoroughly enjoyed Fallout and would recommend it to lovers of political thrillers!!

Recommended!!!