In Reagan’s (The Devil’s Handshake, 2014) latest thriller, billionaire oligarch Sir Thomas Litchfield returns, caught in global tension over the control of Central Asia’s natural gas.

Two years after North Korea and South Korea are reunified, a new gas pipeline through the Koreas has other countries at arms. The initial problems for people in places such as the U.S., China and Russia are monetary; the Turkmenistan president, for example, wants Thomas’ TLH Group to give up its commission with the country. But the situation worsens when a woman, secretly part of a family with a vendetta against Thomas, finds herself in a position of power. Her attempt at retribution leads some to accuse Thomas of murdering his business partner and, since it could be construed as a power play, profiteering from the pipeline deal. It escalates from there: A Turkmenistan gas field is attacked, and countries, including Japan, blame one another for trying to gain control of the fields. Reagan’s novel is a labyrinth of subplots: There’s Zhang Nu, a Chinese model/intelligence officer monitoring Thomas; Korean Vice President O Su Lee, who spearheaded the reunification and may have further, possibly devious, plans; and one country’s indisputable attack on another, perhaps threatening another world war. There are also a few impressive action scenes, particularly the multiple assassination attempts on Thomas, whose armed bodyguards get involved in a few gunfights. The uneasiness derived from international distrust makes even mere discussions, such as ones between Thomas and his friend (but still potentially dangerous) Russian President Vladimir Putin, sound like razor-laced discourse. Yet Reagan doesn’t define the story’s villains by their nations; each country has its share of bad guys, as well as those intent on maintaining peace—even a Japanese yakuza turns out to be a man of honor. However, an abundance of grammatical errors distracts from the otherwise entertaining narrative. And like last time, an open ending teases another sequel, though just deserts for one character will have readers taking in the coda with approval.

Nearly as long as the voluminous prequel but more swiftly paced, the second in the Litchfield series is a marked improvement.

A former British Special Forces officer becomes a billionaire businessman and finds the corporate world and global politics just as bloodthirsty as the battlefield in Reagan’s debut thriller, the first in a proposed series.
Years after Sir Thomas Litchfield has left the Special Air Service, he’s built his own empire as owner of the TLH Group, a national resources company worth $60 billion. But it’s Thomas’ latest deal—with Adwalland, a new African country rich in natural resources—that has caught the attention of Russia, which hopes to re-establish itself as a military power by constructing a Naval base in Adwalland. Thomas’ negotiations benefit both TLH and the Russian president, an old friend. Thomas, however, has no choice but to contend with ex-pirate Wasir Osman Hassan, the interior minister who controls security in Borama, Adwalland’s capital. These associations put Thomas under surveillance from the CIA and both Russia’s and Britain’s foreign intelligence agencies. But a cold war may become heated when Thomas and his security team have to stop Wasir from staging a coup d'état. The author’s gleefully convoluted narrative brims with characters and plot points, following Thomas throughout the years—on an Iraq mission; as an entrepreneur; and saving 19-year-old Nara from her pimp, Oleg, in Turkmenistan. Thomas’ back story is well-developed; he falls in love with Nara, and the two have a daughter, Victoria. He’s also estranged from his father and blames him for his mother’s death. The number of characters can be overwhelming, but there are standouts, including Secret Intelligence Service agent Rebecca Leiris, who has watched Thomas for a long time and has a personal vendetta against Wasir, who killed her fiance. The story’s impact is a bit diminished by extensive grammatical errors, such as missing punctuation, which thorough proofreading could have prevented. Reagan ends his novel on a high note with rising tensions in Borama, which lead to hefty action scenes. And there’s room for sequels with the gaps in Thomas’ timeline, including much of the early 2000s.
Readers may be distracted by grammatical issues, but Reagan turns his 500-plus pages into a searing epic.

Ronald Reagan's adoptive son offers a digressive tract that combines—not always effectively or gracefully—a celebration of his father's presidency, a neoconservative agenda for national renewal, score-settling asides on those he feels have done him wrong, and ad hominem attacks on Bill Clinton that might give the American Spectator pause. Drawing on his father's conceit (borrowed from Pilgrim John Winthrop) of an America that shows the rest of the world just how to create a paradise on earth, the San Diegobased radio talk-show host provides a cluttered blueprint for restoring the putatively lost glories of yesteryear when Reagan päre was cutting taxes, rearming the US military, jump-starting the domestic economy, and otherwise giving the country greater confidence in itself. His four-point program envisions realigning the roles played by mainstays of American society. By way of example, he would cut the federal budget and shrink government while reasserting national sovereignty. In like vein, the author urges that job-creating business be relieved of regulatory and tax burdens. He commends supporting civic and religious institutions that can take up the slack left by welfare reform and castigates government agencies at all levels for their paternalistic intrusions into the American family. At least as interested in tearing down as in building up, Reagan the Younger assails Clinton early and often, characterizing him as a slick (rather than great) communicator and the make-love- not-war president. Nor does the aggrieved author neglect to get even for slights he has suffered at the hands of Republican Party officials, Nancy Reagan (who on occasion has treated him, well, like a stepchild), and others. An odd sociopolitical amalgam, of interest mainly for the personal insights a lightweight son can provide on his world-class father, rather than its anti-Democrat invective or pro forma attempt to revive the Reagan Revolution.