Book Review – Salty Sky by Seth Cocker

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3 days ago 0

Debut author Seth Cocker has crafted an interesting story with Salty Sky. A novel about a retired DEA pilot who becomes a revenge target for a drug cartel leader.

Salty Sky Cover

This story opens with a bang. Back in the mid-1990s, Pilot Cale Coleman flys a DEA SWAT team into a cartel compound. The raid goes sideways resulting in multiple people on both sides dead. One of the dead is the brother of a cartel up and comer, later the cartel leader.

Quickly the book fast forwards twenty years. Coleman is now retired and flys charter flights and has a nice boat. Coleman has a group of buddies in town for a bachelor party. At the same time, a couple of retired New Jersey land developers are on a boat trip on their yacht. In addition the cartel leader is coming to the USA to get revenge for his brother’s death.

Much of the first half of the story is about the weekend of fun on the yacht and the bachelor party. The two groups interact a few times. The author does some interesting things telling the story from the view guys at the bachelor party and then the next chapter telling the same event from the view of the yachting group. It is fun to see the conflict between these two groups and see how each side views the other.

Mixed in with the descriptions of the party is the cartel planning their attack. The author also gets into some aspects of the inner workings of the cartel. How this leader moved up and why after twenty years he is finally seeking his revenge.

In some respects, the author takes a bit too long in describing the party and interaction between the two boats. There were a few points I almost set the book down wondering when the real action would take place. Eventually, the story picks up and becomes a major page turner. Once done I was very happy I did not give up on it!

Salty Sky is one of the more original books I have read in some time. The revenge plot mixed with these two distinct groups of folks on a weekend party trip made for a good escapism read. I hope Mr. Coker writes more books as I can see myself reading more from him.