Title: An American Cage
Author: Ted Galdi
No. of pages: 297
Genre: Thriller
Publication date: October 16th 2017
Date read: October 15th 2017
4.5/5 ★
Three inmates break out of a maximum-security prison in Texas, one of them Danny Marsh, a suburban kid in his twenties who landed in jail because of a crime he never intended to commit.
An American Cage follows Danny and his two escape partners over a twenty-four-hour period as they struggle to cross Texas to freedom in Mexico. On this dangerous journey, Danny has to evade the rabid Texas authorities, and even worse, the schemes of one of his closest allies, who isn’t who he seems.
The second novel by Amazon #1 bestselling author and multi-award winner Ted Galdi, this psychological thriller is packed with suspense, twists, and grit, all while having heart. The story follows its young male protagonist on a journey of self-discovery and redemption as he weaves through a rocky landscape of family issues, guilt, betrayal, and questions about the nature of good and evil.
Along the way, he encounters an eclectic supporting cast, including a renowned psychology professor, a car thief, a young female hitchhiker, the leader of a biker gang, and a small-town Texas policeman with big ambitions.
Featuring vivid descriptions of East Texas’s Piney Woods, Austin, and El Paso, a cinematic unfolding of action, and a examination of existential philosophical concepts, An American Cage would be a pleasing read for fans of literary thrillers as well as commercial thrillers.
The book has echoes of Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men, in addition to the crime fiction of upmarket writers like Dennis Lehane and George Pelecanos.
(Goodreads)
To me, this book was kind of hard to rate. I definitely liked reading it, but at the same time, I felt like there was something … missing. I can’t exactly say what it is, but I think it came because of the not-so-thrilling first part of the book. It felt slow and there were not a lot of twists. Because of that I thought I knew what it was going to end like and the thrill was gone. The second part, however, had me on the edge of my seat the whole ride! Finally, I lost my sense of what was going to happen next and how this story would end. Anything could’ve happened, really!
Ted Galdi did a great job on building his characters and beautiful sentences. At the start of the book, in the not-so-thrilling half, you don’t really know the main characters. I just didn’t care if one would die or not (well, doesn’t that sound heartless …). All that changes in the second half. No character is who he or she seems: some you get to absolutely despise and others you’ll get to love. This book really made me think about “good”, “evil” and everything in between. What exactly makes a person “evil”? It’s clear in the story who’s considered evil and who’s not, but it leaves space to think about it yourself at the same time.
I’m glad that I pushed myself to read on, because I came to really like this story. If you’re looking for a thriller that’s not your average suspense story, you’ll love An American Cage!
* I received an ecopy of this book in exchange for an honest review *
Today’s the release day of An American Cage, so get your own copy NOW!
Share this post:- More
