THE KINGMAKER

Old-hat spies tell shopworn lies in this third outing from a thrillermeister who’s done much better (Secret Sanction, 2001, etc.).

JAG (Judge Advocate General) lawyer Major Sean Drummond, who has sparkled in the past, strives manfully here, but it’s hard for the razzle to dazzle (even with the help of some pretty good one-liners) when the plotting’s caught in the iron grip of formula. For this series, Drummond gets lumbered with a case that has career-breaker written all over it—involving Brigadier General William T. Morrison, with whom Drummond has a history. For a brief period the two were brothers in arms and they once shared a combat assignment—concluded brilliantly—but not the accruing glory, since sneaky Morrison hogged full credit. Seasoned bureaucratic warrior that he is, Drummond could probably have forgiven him that trespass—nobody’s perfect—except that Morrison then stole Drummond’s college sweetheart and all-time dream girl, the staggeringly beautiful (“alabaster skin . . . scorching blue eyes . . . “) Mary Steele Morrison. Now, the mighty having plummeted—in a fall from grace matched only by Benedict Arnold’s—arrogant, fast-tracking General Morrison, former US military attaché in the Moscow embassy, has been arrested, handcuffed, and hauled off to the jail in Fort Leavenworth, charged with high crimes and misdemeanors, including (gulp!) treason. And, could you believe, he wants Drummond to represent him. For his part, Drummond sees in this an enticing danger named Major Eddie Golden, “the Babe Ruth” of JAG prosecutors, who makes a practice of distributing emblematic baseball bats to attorneys he’s brutalized. Drummond, the unhappy owner of a pair of these, hungers for another go-round with the glittering Golden. At first the evidence against Morrison seems overwhelming (natch), but, bulldog-like, Drummond hangs in until the jerrybuilt conspiracies begin their inevitable crumbling—and the you’ll-never-guess-who suspects their fall.

A letdown. Not terrible—just that more was expected.