Review by Booklist Review
Lest we forget, Griffin is the author of five series: Honor Bound, Brotherhood of War, The Corps, Badge of Honor, and Men at War--34 books in total, for those readers who are counting. His latest novel is the first volume in a new series, and it clocks in at more than 500 pages. It concerns a Boeing 727 jet that is hijacked in Angola; the two-man crew is killed. The American president, seeking to know who did the hijacking and why, asks the help of an army intelligence officer serving as an assistant to the secretary of Homeland Security. He's Delta Force Major Carlos Guillermo Castillo, a West Point graduate, pilot, and veteran of Desert Storm. Much of the plot deals with flying and a variety of aircraft, both military and civilian, and there is lots of jargon on navigation systems, landings and takeoffs, airspeeds, guns, satellite imagery, and radar--which, of course, Griffin's fans thrive on. The novel's locales include Germany; Saudi Arabia; Chad; Costa Rica; Washington, D.C.; South Carolina; Georgia; and Philadelphia--a range sure to suit, again, his legion of readers, who probably will guess the story's outcome from the start. But, of course, it is the getting there that is the fun. --George Cohen Copyright 2004 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Proving himself solidly in control of cutting-edge military material, Griffin bases his new series not on wars past but on today's murky exigencies of terrorism and international political intrigue. Army Maj. Carlos Guillermo Castillo, whose Spanish name belies his fair-haired, blue-eyed appearance (he had a German mother), is working as a special assistant to the secretary of homeland security. Because of post-9/11 concerns, when a Boeing 727 is hijacked from a remote airport in Angola, it becomes a top priority for the U.S. government. Vicious infighting between several agencies results in a snafu that leads the U.S. president to assign Charley Castillo to use the search for the plane as an excuse to launch an investigation into the internal workings of all the government agencies and personnel who need to cooperate in terrorist situations. Griffin is more interested in military procedure than in blood, sweat and derring-do, and he resists no urge to meander through scores of pages of backstory to round out the many characters who will be series regulars. In the end, there are a few bodies to account for, but its' the meticulous investigation that leaves readers standing on the tarmac waiting for Charley Castillo and his newly minted band of can-do compatriots to touch down and carry them away again on a new adventure. (Jan. 2) Forecast: Those who love Griffin's stories of past wars will take to this new series based on present and future conflicts. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Simultaneous with the Putnam hardcover. Exclusive rights in the United States. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Griffin's 35th title abandons his five ongoing series, perhaps the best being his Marine Corps series (Retreat, Hell!, 2004, etc.), which, with a thousand pages published so far, is still mired down in the first year of the Korean War. Griffin is either a very, very fast typist or has a factory going. Suggesting the latter is Final Justice, last year's entry in Griffin's Philadelphia police procedurals that shocked many fans with its glare of inconsistencies that jarred with earlier entries. Now he kicks off still another ongoing series, this one set in 2005 to take advantage of the nation's deepening climate of terror since 9/11. Things begin with a Boeing 727, registered to a Philadelphia firm, being hijacked in Angola and then disappearing from the radar. Where is the plane now, and for what awful purpose has it been hijacked? Griffin's new hero is Delta Force Major Carlos Guillermo Castillo, or "Charley," an Army intelligence officer and special assistant to the Office of Homeland Security. So it's off to Africa for Charley, where he uncovers a disaster of huge size aborning. Meanwhile, Griffin zippers each paragraph with a polymath's grip on a universe of photo-realistic facts about whatever he happens to see wherever his head turns. Typical Griffinesque sentence: "Two-two-zero-five Tyson Avenue was a neat brick three-story house just about in the middle of the block." A bedtime book for Arnold's Terminator to enjoy. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
