Type of bind: Hardcover
Format: Bargain Price
Label: Amazon Remainders Account
Manufacturer: Amazon Remainders Account
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 544
Printing Date: December 29, 2004
Publishing house: Amazon Remainders Account
Sale Popularity Level: 365494
Studio: Amazon Remainders Account
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
Over the years, W.E.B. Griffin's stories of the military and police, told with crackling realism and rich characters, have won him millions of fans and acclaim as 'the dean of the American war adventure' (Publishing houses Weekly). Now he vaults into the present day with a series as exciting as anything he has ever written.
At an airfield in Angola, two men board a leased Boeing 727; then, once it is in the air, slit the pilot's throat and fly to parts unknown. The consternation is immediate, as the CIA, FBI, FAA, and other agencies race to find out what has happened, in the process elbowing each other in the sides a little too vigorously.
Fed up, the President of the United States turns to an outside investigator to determine the truth, an Army intelligence officer serving as special assistant to the Director of Homeland Security. Major Carlos Guillermo Castillo, known as Charley, is the son of a German mother and a Tex-Mex father, a Medal of Honor winner who died in Vietnam. A pilot, West Point graduate, and veteran of Desert Storm and the Special Forces, Castillo has a sharp eye for the facts-and the reality behind the facts. Traveling undercover, he flies to Africa, and there, helped and hindered by unexpected allies and determined enemies, begins to untangle a story of frightening dimensions-a story that, unless he can do something about it, will end very, very badly.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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tHIS BOOK WAS ALL i EXPECTED FROM THIS AUTHER.W.E.B.GRIFFIN IS ONE OF THE BEST AUTHERS OUT THERE.
Rated by buyers -
I have all of W.E.B. Griffens books.This one was as excellent as all his others.
Rated by buyers 
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This is my very first Griffin novel and I nearly didn't finish it. It was a slow read with a lot of useless detail and meandering. Griffin should stick to the story line and keep it moving. Pretty much forced myself to finish the book.
Rated by buyers 
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Other reviewers have, correctly in my view, pointed out the many weaknesses of this book's plot, characterization, and story line. I would like to add just a couple of observations.
One - The hero, Castillo, is an utter failure as a strong character who carries the story forward. Aside from the fact that he fulfills every schoolboy's fantasy of the rich playboy, but presents a very uninspiring figure for the adults in the audience, he is simply not capable of getting anything done on his own (perhaps I'm thinking of the old stand-by action hero, James Bond). Now maybe this is Griffin's idea of realism, but for a story that has this single character in nearly every scene I think it's only fair to ask the author to make our hero's intelligence and energy the decisive factor in the story's outcome. But no such luck. One example: a key plot point involves the gathering of information about a missing aircraft. Although Castillo is involved, he is completely at the mercy of his sources. The truly interesting question, not even briefly explored by Griffin, is how these folks seem to be ahead of the US intelligence apparatus at every turn. And when Castillo needs vitally important information from within the US intelligence community, he is reduced to a tirade on the phone and only gets the information he needs when others higher up the pecking order come to bat. It may be realistic to portray US military/intelligence figures as wrapped up in a labyrinth of overlapping jurisdictions and turf wars, but it doesn't make for a very interesting story.
Two - If there is a moral to this story, it would be Griffin's grappling with the ancient question of means and ends. Castillo (and Griffin?) clearly operate on the principle that the end justifies the means - meaning, in the context of this story, that the command structure of the US armed services and intelligence communities is wholly dispensible when
it comes to saving America from a disaster on a par with the World Trade Center attacks of 2001 - not only dispensible, but in fact a positive hindrance to getting anything really useful accomplished. Of course, this is a favorite theme of countless movies (Dirty Harry), TV dramas, books, etc., and I have no problem with employing that plot device here. I have no military background and I won't comment on how members of the armed forces might react to Castillo's (and others) end runs around the official hierarchy, but I just wonder if there's something here we should all be paying attention to. Is our national security ultimately going to depend on the ability of key individuals to bypass the established channels and become rogue agents? I don't have the answer, just the question.
Rated by buyers -
I have read much of this authors work and this is not at the bottom of the barrel, it is UNDER the barrel. What a piece of junk. The story line is stupid, and the book jumps all over the place as if written by a high school kid wanting to be a big time writer.
I just cannot believe he wrote this pathetic book.
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