My rating: 2 of 5 stars
This book started out really well, but the ending was so incredibly stupid that I have to give it just a couple of stars. The book starts out with Ray Cruz, a Marine sniper who is tasked with having to assassinate an Afghan warlord named Ibrahim Zarzi. However, out in the Afghan wilderness, he and his spotter are jumped by mercenaries (American). His spotter is killed, he is wounded, but escapes. He tries to complete his mission, but a missile destroys the building he was going to use to do it on.
Fast forward in time. The FBI comes to one Bob Lee Swagger, the hero of Hunter’s books up til now. Retired and an old former Marine sniper, they want his help in locating and stopping Cruz, because they’ve received a message from Cruz that he’s going to somehow finish his mission, killing Zarzi in the US as he tours the country. He’s changed his ways and is an American golden boy now, and we’re promoting him for Afghan president. The problem is, the mercs are still after Cruz, and now they’re after Swagger.
It’s an action packed, fast paced mystery/thriller that is pretty exciting and even though it’s not remotely believable, unlike Alex Berenson’s novels, it’s still a good ride. And then something happens. A few things.
I don’t know how to write spoilers in these reviews, so I’m just going to write it here:
*** SPOILER ALERT***
Cruz turns out to be Swagger’s son. Nice coincidence, that, don’t you think? Now we can keep the book series alive, even as Swagger gets to be too old to continue. I didn’t like that. Not at all. And I’ve read the next Cruz book and I hated it, so … not thrilled.
The FBI finds out there’s an emergency at the White House and they need a sniper. They call all of their snipers and find they’ve all gone home because they’re tired out from what they just went through. So the FBI goes to the White House with Swagger and Cruz, who apparently aren’t tired at all. But here’s the thing — doesn’t the president have the … Secret Service at all times? Wouldn’t you think they’d have plenty of men around to terminate the threat? Wonder why Hunter didn’t think of that….
Here’s the kicker. Major spoiler. The ending is so damn stupid as to make the entire book useless. The bad guy did everything because he’s pissed off at the West (and the US) for the introduction of the birth control pill in 1960 and what that has done to women. Yep. Women work now and earn just as much, if not more, than men. (Don’t know where Hunter got that utterly false statistic.) Women should be barefoot and pregnant, apparently, and should know their place. The family unit is shrinking. Western society got along quite nicely for centuries with men in the lead and now, thanks to birth control, women are running wild. So Islam, with its misogynistic views, is our only hope. Yeah, I know. Can you believe that shit? That’s the biggest pile of horseshit I’ve ever read. To think that an intelligent reading audience would buy that as the reason for taking down the US by a traitor is asinine. So I would give this book one star, but I’m giving it two because it was exciting, up til that point. Still, definitely not recommended.
hankrules2011 