A kick-ass thriller from start to finish.
There’s red-hot action from the get-go in the ninth novel in the late W.E.B. Griffin’s newly revived Presidential Agent series.
In Cairo, terrorists murder the U.S. ambassador and kidnap Secretary of State Frank Malone, delivering a clear message that the U.S. can’t protect its own. They hold him for ransom and to gain power for themselves in Sudan, where they have spirited him. Oddly, the terrorists’ real goal is to get Sudan removed from the state sponsor of terror list. President Natalie Cohen will have none of this and decides to reinstate the secret Presidential Agent Program and bring the 57-year-old black ops asset Carlos “Charley” Guillermo Castillo out of retirement. He's paired with much younger Marine Raiders Capt. P.K. "Pick" McCoy, who will train in the field to one day be the next Presidential Agent. As expected, there is the old guy–young guy conflict: Is the kid too green?versus Can the old fart keep up with me?Castillo promises the president he'll bring Malone home, but it won’t be easy. A whole lot of bad guys will have to take a bullet, and McCoy proves himself more than up to the task. While Castillo is still the best at what he does, his Marine understudy is a “one-man killing machine” and a “one-man annihilation machine” given to “Captain America bullshit.” And speaking of bovine droppings, he amuses a CIA spook by insisting that he is not a killer. “Being good at killing isn’t what makes you a killer…I take no joy in it.” Oh right, like he hates his job. But the duo seems to take it in stride when "body parts, hot and wet, rained down on them.” Meanwhile, President Cohen hopes that Charley Castillo and his “Merry Outlaws” will show terrorists what happens when you mess with the United States of America. So don’t mind all the blood; it mostly comes from the other guys.
A kick-ass thriller from start to finish.Pub Date: Dec. 7, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-399-17121-5
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A fun read. Terrorists make great Clancy fodder.
Evildoers plan attacks from America to India, and Jack Ryan Jr. is a prime target.
In Washington state, a man and his family are murdered, and President Jack Ryan learns it is another Poseidon Spear incident. Three retired members of that counterterrorism group have been killed now, and the U.S. government suspects a mole in its midst. Meanwhile, the Umayyad Revolutionary Council believes it has a holy and wholly anti-American mission. Against this backdrop, Jack Ryan Jr., and his fiancée, Lisanne Robertson, visit Delhi, India, to attend the wedding of Srini Rai, the brilliant surgeon who attached Lisanne’s prosthetic left arm. Lisanne had lost her arm in Tom Clancy Shadow of the Dragon (2020). Jack and Lisanne are both operators working for the Campus, a covert group that executes secret presidential directives. A wedding is a happy occasion, and the engaged American couple intend the trip as a vacation. Jack and Lisanne will attend a sangeet, an elaborate pre-wedding party. But it isn’t long before they survive a suicide bomb attack. As with all Clancy novels, there’s plenty of action on a global scale. In simultaneous strikes, terrorists plan to contaminate America’s Western water supply with radioactive waste from Washington’s Hanford nuclear power plant, blow up a spectacular new bridge in Kashmir, and kill the evil Ryan—or Junior, at least. It will be At-Takwir, the end of days. There is an appealing mix of Indian culture, high-speed action, and the rich lode of details that characterizes the whole series. And in the background lingers the question on several characters’ minds: Have Jack and Lisanne set their own wedding date?
A fun read. Terrorists make great Clancy fodder.Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2025
ISBN: 9780593718032
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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