THE MONEY WAR

A ""highly researched"" novel about robbing the Federal Reserve Bank in St. Louis which is very good on streets and alleys (maps, even) but has no feel for the citizens nor for the city. Colonel Terrence Donovan is an IRA bandit gone rotten--he and his brother got into the bad habit of robbing banks to support the cause, but after his brother's death and a stretch in jail, he turned into an amoral mercenary and went to Africa as an expert in military hardware. Now he's back and broke, so he decides to hit the big St. Louis bank for over $300,000,000 and fly the cash to Zurich, where he'll have it banked through an Arab cover. Taking the bank requires massive planning and the aid of the St. Louis ""Afrikaners,"" a black group so dumb that it doesn't know it has taken the name of the white South Africans. All St. Louis is attacked as a diversion to the main job going on at the bank, which has been swamped with nerve gas (over a thousand die). The heist is a success, and the ""Afrikaners"" are thrown to the police as the patsies, but a major on the St. Louis police force chases the mastermind down in Ireland and gives his life to kill the killer. Basically okay, with excessive touches to turn you off and no warm-hearted characters to turn you on.