4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Far below the norm for Larry Bond, March 21, 2006
Larry Bond is an excellent techno-thriller author. Just a couple of weeks ago I gave a five-star review to his "Dangerous Ground," one of the best stories of submariners I've read in years. Perhaps that's why the disappointment I feel about "Angels Of Wrath: Rirst Team" is so sharp. The book just isn't Larry Bond. (It is co-authored by Jim DeFelice.)
I dub this a Lego novel. It's like the authors wrote out a bunch of action scenes on notecards and than simply laid out a grid, like building something with Lego blocks. The result is a techno-thriller that's all fluff and no depth.
The "hero" is Bob Ferguson. Hey, let's make Bob a maverick in the CIA, someone who has major difficulties in taking orders and playing well with others, particularly his superiors. Now let's make him a "team leader" of the "First Team," a multi-departmental group that's supposed to squash threats to the United States. Hmmmmmm, what else can we do for Ferguson. Hey, what a great idea! Let's give him a possibly terminal illness and have him take pills for it once in a while!
Of course, Ferguson is ever so sophisticated. A ladies man, of course. A polylinguist. A oenophile and connoisseur of single-malt scotches. Is that enough? Not by a long shot. Ferguson's father was a legend in the CIA and Ferguson, the son, seems to have some psychological problems with that. But not to worry: every bad guy in the world seems to be frightened of Ferguson, who by the way, is also a master of disguise.
In sum, Bob Ferguson is a total caricature, not even as believable as a comic book hero.
Take this joke of a character and put him into a circus that is supposed to be a plot. First we have the extremist religious cult that is trying to foment a major terrorist attack in the Middle East in order to trigger the Apocalypse. The FBI thinks it has arrested everyone after one of the cultists is blown up in Egypt. Oh my gosh, they missed his sister who has been a sleeper for decades. Off she goes to the Middle East to find an arms dealer who will sell her the weapons necessary to trigger the end of the world. Believable? No.
Arms dealers. The book is loaded with them. They all fear Bob Ferguson who has been dispatched first to find the cultists and then track down an Iraqi terrorist. Corrine Alston, a 26 year old special counsel to the President with no background in intelligence or covert operations is told by the President to "supervise" the operation. Of course, Ferguson wants nothing to do with his boss, who is running her own operations (yes, plural) in the Middle East. All of the arms dealers drink champage. All the time. So does Ferguson. Just can't be a tough guy without a flute of champagne in your hand.
There are backstories aplenty. Too many. And there's action: every two or three pages another corpse or two or ten is thrown on the pile. The action rarely has anything to do with anything except filling pages.
And then there is the rogue Mossad agent, an alcoholic, still grieving over the murder of his Muslim wife at the hands of terrorists. Oh yes, he has plans too.
In sum, this is a sharp departure from Larry Bond's normal excellence. Every page is painful to read. The characters have no credibility. The plot is simply a mishmash of pointless action scenes. Compare this with most of Bond's earlier work and you have to ask if something horrible has happened to Mr. Bond.
Whether it's the co-author or falling victim to fame and greed, I hope Larry Bond will put this part of his life behind him and get back to writing some of the best techno-thrillers of the day. This certainly is not one of them.
Jerry
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
