Corrupts Absolutely [Mass Market Paperback]

Alexa Hunt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 6, 2007

An action-packed thriller about the NEXT war on terror...

First came "the Slaughter": the Colombian drug cartel launched a massive attack on American soil, assassinating thousands of federal judges and law enforcement officers in an attempt to stop the crackdown on drugs. Then came public outrage: Congress created a new supersecret agency, the Bureau of Illegal Substance Control. BISC operatives short-circuit due process, acting as judge, jury, and executioner for drug traffickers. When she loses her kid brother to a drug OD, Leah Berglund is recruited by BISC. She becomes one of their finest agents and a skillful assassin. She has a perfect kill record for every guilty verdict. Then she is assigned to a special case...

Elliott Delgado was a hot shot FBI agent until a burst of machine-gun fire retired him on a disability pension. Now all Del wants is to spend time with his son and enjoy his new career as a Pulitzer Prize--winning reporter. Until he receives a phone call from his old mentor at the FBI....

Posing as a research assistant to Del, Leah investigates secret drug charges against him while he uncovers a conspiracy between BISC and the Pentagon. He learns that the war on drugs is about to go nuclear. The Western Hemisphere will be flash-fried if the conspirators are not stopped. As she digs deeper into Del's case, Leah realizes she has been set up to kill an innocent man.

Now she and Del are running targets as BISC agents chase them from Mexico to Maine. America's worst nightmare is set to begin if they can't run fast enough.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Opening with several pages of simulated news stories, this near-future thriller screams its story: "Cartel Targets FBI, DEA, Judiciary!... President Declares State of Emergency." After thousands of Americans die in a coordinated attack by Colombian drug cartel assassins responding to a crackdown on their new drug, Elevator (a popular and often deadly combination of cocaine and Viagra), a new, ruthless super agency, the Bureau of Illegal Substance Control (BISC) is created. Elliott Delgado, former FBI agent, is called back into action when his old boss finds that several FBI agents have been assassinated by BISC agents. The FBI men were investigating intelligence that suggested that the BISC is preparing a strike against the Colombians on their home ground. This attack, and the retaliation, will likely result in a nuclear holocaust. Delgado accepts the assignment to investigate the BISC and is tracked by beautiful but deadly BISC assassin, Leah Berglund, with whom he quickly falls in love. The drug scenario is an intriguing premise, but the love portion of the equation is a continuing drag on the basic military/espionage elements. Hunt is the author (under her real name, Shirl Henke) of 26 romance books, and it shows. No amount of shoot-outs, car chases and helicopter battles can overcome pedestrian writing studded with lines like, " 'Mmm, I love hairy men,' she breathed, plowing her splayed fingers through the mat on his chest...." Agent, Nancy Yost. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

In this clever first novel, set in the near future (or perhaps an alternate version of the near future), Elliott "Del" Delgado, an investigative journalist, is hot on the trail of a government conspiracy. Naturally this makes the government nervous, and they send out an agent to neutralize him, but Leah Berglund, assassin extraordinaire, soon discovers there's more to the situation than meets the eye. In building her fictional society, the author (veteran romance writer Shirl Henke, writing under a pseudonym) takes the current war on drugs to a frighteningly plausible extreme: the U.S. Congress has enacted the Martial Law Act and empowered a new agency, the Bureau of Illegal Substance Control (BISC), to seek out drug dealers and to act as judge, jury, and executioner. Problem is, absolute power does that thing that it does, and, as Leah and Del learn the hard way, the BISC may have lost track of its mandate. Exciting if rather depressingly plausible reading. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books (March 6, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765350092
• ISBN-13: 978-0765350091
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,985,207 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Just the Facts, June 26, 2007

By 

Lady Action Fan (Illinois) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Corrupts Absolutely (Hardcover)

The author is a former journalist who unfortunately writes this novel like a journalist. The details are abundant, but they come across as factual rather than evocative of emotion.

I never connected with any of the characters. Part of this was because their emotions/inner dialogue never came across as convincing. And another part of this was because, instead of using the opening chapters to devlop the two leads and help the reader connect with them, the authors introduces what felt like dozens of new characters and situations. This all came across as erractic and disconnected. While using press releases/news stories to build this futuristic world is an interesting and different method for opening the story, it served more to disconnect the reader from the story's "world." I may have read one, skimmed a few others, then basically skipped the rest. The press releases were boring and uninvolving. (I used to write them for a living).

In fact, I made through just about half the book, before I put it aside altogether. I just couldn't muster up enough interest in or care of the characters to find out how it ends. The male lead was a little bit more emotionally developed that the female lead, but I still just didn't care.

As mentioned by other posters, another major flaw in the book was some of the details of the futuristic world. The term "flash drive" was used constantly. The book's "flash drive" had nothing to do with computers. This error repeatedly poked at my suspension of disbelief. Another "mistake" was referring to the Queen of England as "Queen Diana." I think given that this book was published in 2005, almost 8 years after Princess Diana's death, this faux pas should have been caught and the reference changed.

All in all, Corrupts Absolutely, presented roadblock after roadblock to my connecting with the story and its characters.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not the most convincing effort, March 28, 2007

By 

Eric "Eric" (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Corrupts Absolutely (Hardcover)

Although the characters and story are good enough, Ms. Hunt set this thriller in an alternate present, but left out any plausible technology to support it: The weapons, vehicles and communications are all a bit absurd.

What ex-FBI agent would use such a ridiculous, huge, ungainly gun as a .50-caliber automatic? Why would electric vehicles ever become popular if they were limited to 40 miles per hour? What the heck is a "flash drive" supposed to be? What kind of digital camera uses a "pixel card?"

This technical silliness undermines the entire story, at least for anyone with even a passing interest in science fiction or technology.

For science fiction with a plausible edge, I would recommend such incredible works as Snow Crash (by Neil Stephenson).

If you care at all about technology, avoid books like this, where the author badly needed either to do more basic homework or to get a better editor. Ms. Hunt would have done a lot better staging her story in the real world.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book!, February 28, 2007

By 

Wendy Drew "Owner-Rose's Bookhouse" (O'Fallon, MO United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Corrupts Absolutely (Mass Market Paperback)

What do you like? Hard boiled detectives and leggy blondes? Megalomaniacs trying to take over the world? Bombs and bullets from Maine to Mazatlan? Alexa Hunt's Corrupts Absolutely has it all.

Hunt gives us a broken hero and misguided heroine who just may be able to find the partner they've always needed to make them whole--if they live long enough. The one thing they have in common is good training. They can steal cars, track anything from an atomic bomb to an abducted child and shoot any weapon that's ever been made--and a few that haven't.

Fiery Eliott Delgado turned reporter when the FBI turned its back on him. Icy Leah Berglund works as judge, jury and executioner for BISC--the Bureau of Illegal Substance Control. BISC is the SS of a nightmarish America of the future in which the "Slaughter" of thousands by drug lords gave the President cause to assume extraordinary powers. Congress was only too happy to sign over to him the Martial Law Act--which made drug trafficking treasonous and punishable by death--immediate death. Goodbye Constitution. Goodbye Bill of Rights. Hunt pictures an America gone fear-mad controlled by power-drunk politicos.

Any similarity to actual events in recent history is purely coincidental. The author swears she tried to sell this book concept years ago--without success. No editor thought the idea held sufficient credibility--then.

Lest you think Hunt's future world is 100% slam bang bad, it's not--only 99%. She also envisions a few betterments I hope will come to pass. In her brave new world, The United States has at last joined the planet at large to become metric. What's more, we have done away with the internal combustion engine and all its nasty pollution.

If high stakes and harrowing chases aren't enough to tempt you, Hunt also serves up surprises and sizzling sex garnished with more than a few dollops of humor. So move over Cussler and Ludlum and all you folks who write futuristic, political-thriller or action-adventure yarns. Alexa Hunt is hitting the shelves and she's got drop dead gorgeous aim straight at your laurels.--Reviewed by Donna Ross