Savage
By David Edward
When a rogue special ops unit threatens global security in the heart of the Darien Gap, one man must confront the ghosts of his past to stop a conspiracy that reaches the highest levels of power.
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OverviewTen years after leaving the military behind, Dirk Lasher has built a quiet life running a bar in South Florida, caring for his dying wife with the help of his old friend Jack Williams. But when a young captain arrives with news that an entire U.S. Special Forces company has gone rogue in Panama, threatening the stability of the entire region, Lasher finds himself pulled back into the world he thought he had escaped. The mission seems straightforward: rescue the captured troops and restore order before the situation escalates into an international crisis. What begins as a rescue operation quickly spirals into something far more sinister. The plane carrying Lasher and a Delta Force team is shot down over the Darien Gap, one of the most inhospitable jungles on Earth. Surviving the crash with only one other soldier, Lasher must navigate not just the deadly wildlife and treacherous terrain, but also face the truth that this is no simple defection. The rogue unit is led by Jim Cruz, a man Lasher once commanded, who harbors a decade-old vendetta and has aligned himself with powerful forces intent on seizing control of the Panama Canal. As Lasher fights through the jungle, outnumbered and outgunned, he discovers that the conspiracy runs deeper than anyone imagined. The people he trusted have betrayed him, and the death of his wife may not have been the natural tragedy he believed. With everything he once held dear stripped away, Lasher must decide whether to remain the good soldier or embrace the savage within. In a world where loyalty is an illusion and survival demands brutality, the only way out may be to become the very monster he has spent his life trying not to be. |
Questions this book answers
- What drives a decorated soldier to turn against his country and lead an entire special forces company into betrayal?
- How does a man survive when stranded in one of the world's deadliest jungles with minimal supplies and maximum enemies?
- What happens when the line between soldier and savage becomes impossible to distinguish?
- Who really controls the flow of power in Central America, and what are they willing to sacrifice to maintain it?
- Can redemption be found through violence when violence is all that remains?
- What price does a man pay when he discovers that his greatest loss was orchestrated by those he trusted?
Selected quotes
"I've fought my whole life to resist becoming what I'll become if you don't handle things now. When you took Lisa, you changed me. Don't let me out of here. Don't make this a thing because I will follow through, and I will become the monster."
"As soon as you touch the ground, you lose your position as the apex predator."
"We're deep in enemy territory, we have an armed tactical squad no more than fifteen minutes behind us, and, if they don't overtake us and gun us down from behind in cold blood, there are just the four of us, banged up badly, against seventy-five US Special Forces, and who knows how many of these FARC geniuses patrolling the area."
Why it matters
In an era where loyalty is questioned at every level and institutional betrayal has become commonplace, "Savage" explores what happens when good soldiers are pushed beyond their breaking point. This is not just another military thriller but a visceral examination of how grief, betrayal, and survival strip away civilization's veneer. Readers who pass on this book miss experiencing one of the most authentic depictions of jungle warfare ever written, where the environment itself becomes a character as deadly as any human adversary. Reading "Savage" now means understanding that sometimes the greatest battles are fought not against external enemies but against the darkness within ourselves.