Some things Stephen Coonts do well, some things he does less well. As Jake Grafton, the red thread in the Jake Grafton novels (doh!), moves up the chain of command the books end up more in higher level, political, situations, and Coonts' political authoring is not up to the standards of his action, military or thriller writings.

This book is about Washington DC's drug problem and interaction with Colombian drug lords. It's possible that the book has aged badly, but it doesn't seem to be a good fit to reality.

This book moved away from Jake Grafton even more and focused on 3 other characters: A Washington Post writer, an undercover police and a rented assassin. Their character portraits are not terrible but you read a Jake Grafton book to follow Jake Grafton. Now he just becomes a fringe character which adds very little, or nothing, to the story.

At a few places in previous books, and in many places in this book, Coonts let characters do political rants. I don't know if they reflect the authors own views or anti-views but they become tiring, both the serious ones and the ones seemingly intended to make the readers think a character is ridiculous.

I don't know if I will keep reading the series after this one. Maybe give it one more shot? If the review score is higher on the next book - maybe... ( )

What if narco terrorists with lots of money hired mahem and anarchy in the US? Applied the same strong arm tactics to the USA as to Columbia or Venezuela? That's the thesis of this book and Jake Grafton plays a small but crucial role. I was surprised that the US leadership did not apply interdiction in Columbia to the story; it would have improved some. Instead, the author stayed with tactical roles, even making the CJCS a tactical commander. I liked the book and am looking forward to the next in the Grafton series. ( )

This is the first Stephen Coonts' book I have actually finished! The other ones I've tried I never liked. I have a friend that really like Stephen Coonts' so I wanted to keep trying to find a book by him I'd actually like and this is the 1st!

I found I really enjoyed it from the very beginning. It was a book/story I was sorry to put down. I enjoyed all the twists and turns and different plot points. It's essentially 3 or 4 different stories all in one and each one is well written : )

Adrianne ( )

From the start Coonts gets your attention. The US Govt. brings a drug lord to America to stand trial. He uses Columbian tactics to be released. Everything from commando teams to an assassin to take out the President. The book starts to flow when the assassin wounds President Bush. The story is great. Well developed...until the end. I would have given this book 4 stars if the ending would have lived up to the rest of the interesting story line. With what we have learned in the book about the assassin, it is hard to believe he would act as he does after being so meticulous. ( )

NIL