Detroit police officer Kurt Argento hasn’t been the same since his beloved wife, Emily, died from cancer. Or, rather, perhaps he’s been too much the same, too prone to the violence and impulsiveness that were his weaknesses before he met her. But this time, when he recklessly takes on a fight with some perps, needlessly risking both his and his partner’s safety, not even his loyalty to the Detroit police force --- a relationship extending across generations --- is enough to salvage his career.

Unemployed, aimless and heartbroken, Argento sets off in his pickup truck with his dog and no clear destination in mind other than the Pacific Ocean. He gets sidetracked, to put it mildly, when a stop at a roadside country fair in rural Missouri goes completely off the rails. An attempt to intervene and stop a sexual assault on a minor winds up leading to an altercation with the small-town police force, including its corrupt sheriff. Argento finds himself shipped off to Whitehall, a maximum-security private prison, to await trial for assaulting a police officer.

"THE ASCENT is...a thrill ride of a book, one that’s easy to imagine being adapted for a blockbuster film --- one of those action movies where there’s always one more killer around the corner."

Unbeknownst to Argento, there’s another newcomer to Whitehall --- Julie Wakefield, the Missouri governor’s twenty-something daughter. An avid endurance athlete who is soon to be married, Julie is taking a criminology course and wants to write about the prison for her final paper. Her dad has arranged for a security detail, made up of two veteran troopers, to accompany her on her tour. He’s gotten special permission for her to keep her cell phone --- though, as the prison’s assistant warden advises her before they start their tour, the prison uses technology that blocks cell phone signals so that prisoners can’t use contraband tech.

Speaking of tech, almost as soon as Julie and Argento arrive independently at Whitehall, things start to go haywire. Key cards work only intermittently and just on certain doors, and even some of the cell doors have come unlocked. They eventually learn that all security doors and cells will be unlocked in just two hours. Prison guards have gone missing, fled or worse. Argento, Julie and a small group of prison staff soon find themselves with no way out of the building but up six floors of increasingly dangerous convicts to the roof where hopefully cell service will be restored and rescuers can meet them.

Debut novelist Adam Plantinga has gained a reputation for offering honest, no-holds-barred depictions of police work in two nonfiction books that have become essential references for crime novelists writing about cops. Perhaps it’s no wonder, then, that Plantinga (who also happens to be an SFPD cop himself) has turned his own pen to fiction.

The result is a novel full of both nonstop action and ceaseless horror that is certainly not for the faint of heart. The level of violence and gore, combined with the protagonist’s blunt, sometimes problematic way of talking about other characters, might turn off some readers. But THE ASCENT is also a thrill ride of a book, one that’s easy to imagine being adapted for a blockbuster film --- one of those action movies where there’s always one more killer around the corner. At the same time, it offers implicit commentary about the dehumanizing effects of incarceration and the dangers of the cost-cutting measures employed by some private prisons like Whitehall. And even after all the heart-pounding action, Plantinga inserts some genuine tenderness between his characters in the final pages.

Fans of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher novels will find much to appreciate here and will be eager for Plantinga to continue his foray into fiction.