Dying Breath
Harry Bauer Thriller • Book 2
by Blake Banner
Why You'll Love This
A Bronx-raised special ops killer hunting biochemists in Manhattan — Banner makes moral ambiguity feel like a feature, not a flaw.
- Great if you want: a cold, capable protagonist who operates outside every rule
- The experience: fast and lean — 187 pages that don't waste a single one
- The writing: Banner writes action with hard-edged economy — no flourish, no fat
- Skip if: you prefer character depth over plot momentum
About This Book
When a man's entire skill set centers on ending lives, retirement isn't really an option — it's just a change of employer. Harry Bauer, former special ops soldier turned Cobra operative, is built for the brutal edges of a world most people never see. What begins as a clean, contained assignment in Manhattan spirals into something far more dangerous and personal, pulling Bauer into a web of biochemical threat, institutional betrayal, and the kind of moral reckoning that no amount of combat training prepares you for. The stakes here aren't abstract — they're the kind that hang over entire populations, and Bauer is the last, imperfect line between catastrophe and silence.
Banner writes with a stripped-down efficiency that suits the material perfectly — no wasted scenes, no decorative prose, just lean, purposeful storytelling that keeps the pressure building from the first page. At under 200 pages, Dying Breath is ruthlessly tight, and that discipline is a genuine strength. The Bronx-bred grittiness Banner gives Bauer feels earned rather than performed, grounding even the most operatic thriller elements in something that reads as lived-in and credible. Readers who appreciate character-driven action fiction will find Bauer a protagonist worth following.
