An Editorial Review of “Measure of Danger” by Jay Klages

This techno-thriller pitches “The Chapter,” a high-tech, well-organized, and ruthless para-military organization, against a former intelligence officer with a behavioral disorder that makes him an unpredictable anomaly to all sides.

In Measure of Danger by Jay Klages, The Chapter has infiltrated every level of government, and their financier, a drug cartel, has upped the ante and their demands. The United States is in imminent danger, but no one knows from whom or from what, and the clock is ticking.

Kade Sims feels he has been unfairly dumped from his former position in Army Intelligence because of out-of-control behavior due to a condition called hypomania. He’s bored, out of shape, and stuck working part-time at Home Depot instead of at the Pentagon. So when the FBI knocks on his door of his Virginia apartment and asks him to go undercover in Oregon to infiltrate a mysterious quasi-militia group called The Chapter, he’s eager to go to work for his country again.

His training goes well, but on his initial scouting mission into The Chapter’s territory, the plan goes awry when his Jeep hurtles off a muddy mountain road. Kade wakes up strapped to a bed in The Chapter’s compound. He is now inside The Chapter sooner and with a lot less control than he or the FBI planned. To make matters worse, his brutal guards know not only who he is, but where his beloved sister goes to school. When they can’t break him, they decide to use his skills to their advantage, confident they can control him at every step with a computer chip they implanted into his head.

But Kade’s hypomania proves to be a benefit when it gives him resistance to The Chapter’s hi-tech mind-control methods. He finds creative ways to communicate with the FBI, his roommate, and family, and the game is on as each side seeks to control the situation.

But there are more than two players in the deadly game. The Chapter is hiding under the banner of an agricultural biotech company called AgriteX, whose most popular crop is bio-engineered marijuana. A drug cartel is its biggest client. However, the cartel believes that AgriteX has violated their contract to supply supercharged marijuana seeds, and the AgriteX leaders are now on the cartel’s hit list.

The Chapter is dangerous both to its recruits and to the American government along with just about anyone they come into contact with.  As Kade becomes more involved in the shadowy organization, his contacts with outside parties and his resistance to being controlled make The Chapter’s leader suspicious of his loyalty. Will he survive his assignment with mind and body intact? As the suspense builds to a fiery nationwide conclusion with all weapons drawn, thriller readers will be glued to the pages to find out what happens next as the plot twists and spins with unrelenting action and surprise as the pieces and clues come together.

Measure of Danger, Jay Klages’ debut novel is a page-turning techno-thriller written by a former military intelligence officer and a West Point graduate. Klages experience and expertise is revealed with his believable dialog, details, and operative descriptions. The work features military trained Kade Sims, and his accountant sidekick, Alex Pace; we can’t wait to read what other dangerous puzzles this unlikely dynamic duo will be called on to solve.