COVERT WARRIORS

The latest military thriller from Griffin.

  At a Mexican roadblock, an American Embassy SUV is stopped and its occupants murdered except for Colonel Ferris, who is kidnapped. A drug cartel wants one of its own released from the Florence, Colo., supermax prison, and President Clennenden secretly wants to exchange the convict for Ferris. Meanwhile, Clennenden fears a coup by the vice president. Is this paranoia or genuine treason? POTUS misses no opportunity to earn the same contempt he lavishes on his subordinates, and he is accurately seen by some as a nut job. But just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you, so maybe there is something to his worries. The big issue, though, is whether it’s OK to trade a vicious murderer, who would surely kill again, for a hostage. It’s a good plot point, although the unrelenting nastiness of POTUS makes him look one-dimensional. And it’s irritating when half the characters are introduced by their height and weight, or when a character jokes, “If I tell you, I’ll have to kill you,” time and time again. Worse is the action-stopping background information provided every time a new character appears. Moreover, listing the precise model number of every weapon and aircraft feels unnecessary.  

More explosions and tighter writing would have helped.