Customer Reviews

Deep Black: Conspiracy (NSA Series)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

A Secret Service agent is dead of an apparent suicide. A Presidential
candidate Senator Gideon McSweeney narrowly misses being assassinated at
a public event. Due to threatening e-mails NSA Desk Three(Deep Black) is
able to find a link to the Republic of Vietnam. It is at first suspected
that "Infinite Burn" a plan for Vietnam to assassinate American leaders
has been launched. Charlie Dean and Tommy Karr travel to Vietnam to do
an investigation. Dean travels to Quang Nam to confront Phuc Dinh who
Dean thought he had sucessfully assassinated 30 years before. Another
person of suspicion is Pine Plains police chief Christopher Ball. It makes
for an interesting read for Deep Black to try and unravel this mystery.
There are many shocking twists and turns for the true villains to be
exposed. The 30 year old conspiracy is just as shocking. This is one of
the better "Deep Black" books that has been written. Be sure not to miss this one.

I'm usually a Coonts' fan, but this book was a disappointment. First of all I think the title is overblown as a reflection of the story. Some of the plot line is a bit far-fetched. But most of all I found the book plodding - tedious. Most of the time when I start one of his books, I can't put it down until I finish it. This book lasted for over 2 weeks. Lots of short chapters (some less than a half page in length) that jump back and forth from one locale or character to another. No real intense tension. And all of it tracing back to an improbable chain of events more than 40 years ago that we are to believe would lead a Police Chief to unhesitatingly kill a Secret Service agent and try to assassinate a Presidential candidate, decades later. Hmmmmm. Apparently they haven't heard of the Statutes of Limitation. If you are looking for a good read, I don't agree with those who wrote in these reviews that this was a 4 or 5 star outing. A weak Coonts' contribution. One man's opinion....

A solid offering in what's become a consistently entertaining series. Almost up there with Biowar, my favorite Deep Black to date. I look forward to seeing how some of the new subplots hinted at in this book play out in the future.

This is the first book I've read in the Deep Black series but it won't be my last--as someone who enjoys the work of co-author DeFelice,I thought I'd give it a try and wasn't disappointed. Deep Black: Conspiracy is a deftly plotted thriller full of deadly political machinations and one protagonist's coming face-to-face with an enemy he'd thought long gone. The story's unpredictable twists and turns start on page one and never stop. The action is top-notch, with plenty of high-tech dazzle. A great summer adventure.

A sniper takes a shot, and misses, at presidential candidate Gideon McSweeney. The sympathy reaction propels the Senator into the lead as Super Tuesday approaches. Meanwhile, a Secret Service agent working on his security is found dead in a hotel room. An apparent suicide. Or is it? Another Secret Service agent - one he was having an affair with - doesn't think so, but she can't come forward with it.

The Deep Black team finds the dead agent had been emailing people in Vietnam - where the targeted senator had served, and starts probing for a connection. Could Vietnam be behind the assassination attempt? And what happened there so many years ago?

Deep Black agents Charlie Dean and Tommy Karr go to Vietnam to probe into those the agent had emailed, finding both more and less than they suspected. Dean, a former Marine sniper who served there, must confront ghosts of his past, particularly in befriending an older Vietnamese woman who suspects his cover story.

Meanwhile, back in America, Agent Lia DeFrancesca investigates the agent's apparent suicide and the mysterious behavior of his girlfriend. The behavior of McSweeney's canny Irish pol aide becomes puzzling. Slowly a story four decades old emerges.

This Deep Black series book grew on me. Vietnam angles bring out the best in Coonts, who served there. There were a lot of things I liked about it.

Dean's understated character has a lot of depth to him - grappling with the past without being consumed by it, a man of action when he needs to be but not a gunslinger. Karr is comic relief, sort of a condensed version of Tommy Carmellini elsewhere - Coonts must have some private joke with himself about the similarity in the two names. DeFrancesca is an impatient pain in the ass, and that's a compliment. Washington characters Bill Rubens, the deputy NSA head who must run bureaucratic interference as he QBs the mission, and eccentric computer geeks Robert Gallo and Johnny Bib are entertaining.

The technology engages, particularly as Coonts hints in the introduction that while the team is fictional, it's based on a real one. The instructions from the omniscient eye-in-the-sky home office, fed into plugs in the ear and enhanced by video bugs the agents continually cache here and there, have become familiar to TV viewers in the age of "24". But what continues to be fun are the gadgets Karr and Dean continually pull out of their bags like Felix the Cat, always having the right tool for the right job - be it a boom mike that looks like a tourist camera, a magnetometer to suss out security systems, or whatever. They gracefully get into and out of whatever buildings they have to.

Coonts' writing continues its low-key charm with the Deep Black series.

I am a big fan of Stephen Coonts' writing. So, when I learned of the Deep Black series, co-written with Jim DeFelice, I picked up "Deep Black: Conspiracy." I was not disappointed. Based on Coonts' thorough background knowledge and research into current espionage technologies, the action ricocheted from Vietnam - past and present - to rural Connecticut, D.C., LA and several stops in between.

In the midst of this action genre page-turner, Coonts offers some deep insights into the mindset of many Vietnam veterans:

"Meeting his Vietnamese enemy reminded Dean not of the war but of ow much he had changed in the intervening years. As a sniper, he's seen Vietnam, the world, as black-and-white. Now he saw only colors, infinite colors. He knew his job and his duty, and would perform both. But e no longer had the luxury the teenager had of looking at targets through a crosshaired scope. What he saw was weighted with the time he's come through, the miles he's walked.

The ghosts he'd shared space with, haunted by and, in turn, haunting." (Page 255)

I plan to read the rest of the series.

Enjoy!

Stephen Coonts' DEEP BLACK: CONSPIRACY receives a dual narration by Coonts and Jim DeFelice and a powerful reading by Christopher Lane, who adds high drama to the story of an apparent suicide, the interrogation of a Marine sniper, and a Deep Black agent who has uncovered the trail of a killer. High-tech weapons, undercover agents, and a plot to destroy the U.S. make for vivid action in an audio highly recommended for any lending library where patrons favor realistic international dramas.

If you like canned food,this is a book for you. Craftmanship of excellent level, nothing original or surprising. Reassuring in its consistenc,perfect for a long rail trip.

Complete waste of time. I'm an avid reader and like the genre, but I've been trying to finish this one now for almost a whole week. Every time I pick it up,I end bored and have to put it aside, not worth your time.

J.

Linking Charlie Dean's Vietnam military experiences with a present-day Deep-Black assignment makes for an imaginative story-line and interesting reading. This is a bit different from the other Deep Black novels. Some other reviewers don't like the book as much as I did; in my opinion, that's simply a matter of individual taste. Check it for yourself. I enjoyed and recommend this, and all books by Messrs. Coonts and DeFelice. Thank you, gents.