W.E.B. Griffin direct action

This is the tenth novel in Griffin's popular Presidential Agent series and one of the two he didn't write. The first five were by Griffin solo, while the next four brought in collaborators. All featured mysterious, multitalented Charley Castillo. Now the franchise is helmed by Stewart, and he's promoted a Castillo colleague, U.S. Marines Captain Pick McCoy, into the starring role. Castillo is near death from a terrorist attack, and the president, moving quickly, needs someone "to overcome the cumbersome bureaucracy of the federal government." Like most writers in this genre, Griffin/Stewart doesn't waste words considering how dangerous this is. Pick gets right to work, seeking to understand how terrorists managed to get military-grade weapons across the border. Here Stewart reflects Griffin's fascination with chaos theory. Shots fired in Maryland connect with Pick's love life at the U.S. Naval Academy, with a drug cartel, a sex crime, a business failure, the president's son, and, especially, a vividly described battle over and under the Atlantic Ocean. It all goes on a bit, but fans think the more time spent in Griffin's world, the better.