Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Book Review - Deadly Straits - R.E. McDermott
Title: Deadly Straits
Review:
I can't believe this is R.E. McDermotts first book. Deadly Straits is a
fast pace thriller that takes no prisoners. From the very beginning of
the book the reader knows that the body count is going to be high and at
times gruesome. The author uses almost every country that has issues
in the world today from Iran to Venezuela and had them working
together. Terrorists from all parts of the world, Jihadist, former East
German to Chechen rebels. The author created such evil characters that
you could only hope they would receive the same punishment they gave to
others. The hero of the book, Tom Dugan, was only trying to help a
friend and instead found himself in the middle of a CIA\MI5
investigation. Tom wasn't an All American Hero and the author created a
character that everyone could identity with when it came to feelings of
regret, friendship, love and passion. Towards the end of the book the
author added two Russians for comic relief, the tension that had been
building up and I was grateful for the two very funny Russians.
I
enjoyed that R.E. McDermott gave a back stories to everyone who was
important in the book so the reader could better understand the
characters motives later on. The only problem I found was the story
jumped around from character to character and after a while there were
too many characters to keep track of causing me to reread large sections
of the book. I ended up taking away their names and renaming some of
the lesser characters as rebel 1 terrorist 2. At one point in the book I
wasn't even sure who some of the lesser character were and decided to
more past them to get back to the main story.
The
author created a very believable story just like other great thriller
authors such as Tom Clancy. The author also had a large body count and
with that came several scenes of strong language and gore. I could have
lived without someone’s guts coming out and a missing leg all in one
chapter.
I felt this book was a combination of the movie Taken with the large dead body count but the suspense of a Tom Clancy mystery.
Thank you Heidi for this fabulous review…keep up the great work.
Publisher: Published July 28th 2011 by R.E. McDermott
Copyright: 2011
Pages: 412
ISBN: 9780983741701
Quick Review: 31/2 Stars out of 5.
Where I Obtained the Book: The author sent it for review.
Synopsis: When
marine engineer and very part-time spook Tom Dugan becomes collateral
damage in the War on Terror, he's not about to take it lying down.
Falsely
implicated in a hijacking, he's offered a chance to clear himself by
helping the CIA snare their real prey, Dugan's best friend, London ship
owner Alex Kairouz. Reluctantly, Dugan agrees to go undercover in Alex's
company, despite doubts about his friend's guilt. Once undercover,
Dugan's steadfast refusal to accept Alex's guilt puts him at odds not
only with his CIA superiors, but also with a beautiful British agent
with whom he's romantically involved.
When
a tanker is found adrift near Singapore with a dead crew, and another
explodes in Panama as Alex lies near death after a suspicious suicide
attempt, Dugan is framed for the attacks. Out of options, and convinced
the attacks are prelude to an even more devastating assault, Dugan
eludes capture to follow his last lead to Russia, only to be shanghaied
as an 'advisor' to a Russian Spetsnaz unit on a suicide mission.
Deadly
Straits is a non-stop thrill ride, from London streets, to the dry
docks of Singapore, to the decks of the tankers that feed the world's
thirst for oil, with stops along the way in Panama, Langley, Virginia,
and Teheran. Richly spiced with detail from the author's 30 years
sailing, building, and repairing ships worldwide, it is, in the words of
one reviewer, "fast-paced, multilayered and gripping."
No comments:
Post a Comment