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25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Murder most foul and a sleuth with style, September 16, 2003
There's a new star on the scene of the mystery/suspense genre: Brian Haig. I was suspicious at first of this brother of General Alexander Haig, thinking maybe Brian was taking advantage of easy celebrity. No way. Brian Haig proves his talent in Private Sector, written in an energetic, light-hearted style with a good dose of self-deprecating humor. Sean Drummond is perfectly happy as an Army Attorney, not particularly excited about participating in an attorney exchange program between the Army and the "Private Sector", assigned to a high profile, high-billing law firm. But Sean signed up to follow orders. As the fledgling member of the prestigious D.C. law firm, Sean wastes no time establishing his reputation as a bad boy, unconcerned with keeping this particular assignment. Clearly, Drummond has no love for this arrogant group, specialized litigators who cater to the most elite of Washington businessmen. Sean readily disdains the smooth talkers with their extravagant lifestyles and has no intention of fitting into this particular niche. Sean is baffled by the aura of menace that surfaces as soon as he begins to ask questions about his predecessor, a young woman recently found murdered. Naturally inquisitive, Drummond is especially interested, since he once dated the young woman. Any attempt on his part to uncover her activities at the firm before her death is met with a wall of silence, which, of course, only piques Sean's curiosity. He appears to spend his days cavorting through his duties in designer suits, driving a new Jaguar provided by the firm, but, in reality, he is intent on uncovering the circumstances that led to this strange death. Not one to be easily thwarted or intimidated, Drummond enlists the aid of a D.C .cop and an Assistant D.A., who also happens to be the sister of the murdered girl. Continuing his pursuit of inside information, Drummond uncovers a convoluted plot with serious implications of government interference. Then other young women are killed, each in a similar fashion, although with progressively more violence. The police request help from the FBI, assuming they are dealing with a serial killer, but there is far more involved than the apparent serial murders. As Sean and Janet delve deeper than is prudent, their actions put them both in imminent jeopardy. In Private Sector, Brian Haig serves up a volatile mix of sociopathic assassins, CIA operatives and FBI investigators, with frightening implications. A sly master of bluff and bravado, Haig's Sean Drummond is a sympathetic, even endearing, character, easy to like, imperfections and all. Oblivious to personal danger, Drummond stubbornly pursues the motive and the murderer, refusing to ignore conflicting motives that may impact his investigation. Take the infamous inter-agency conflicts between the CIA and the FBI, add a twisted plot with international criminal overtones and you have a nicely stylized mystery novel by a talented author. Haig knows how to tell a story. This young author is ensured a bright future, with his fresh voice and penchant for innovative plotting. Luan Gaines/ 2003.
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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Nelson DeMille Jr.?, September 20, 2003
For 10 years I have anxiously awaited the release of each DeMille novel. With the arrival of each book, I would invariably finish it in 2 days and then lament having to wait another 9 months or so for the next offering. A few years ago, I saw a poster on a DC subway for a book called Secret Sanction by Brian Haig. I wouldn't have thought twice about the poster if it wasn't for a positive testimonial from Nelson DeMille that was printed on the poster. DeMille's rubber stamp was good enough for me. I immediately went out and bought Secret Sanction and was enthralled. I have since read Haig's other novels, including the recently published Private Sector, and each book was better than the prior one. Haig and DeMille are now interchangeable for me and my only negative with each of them is that I read their books too damn fast!! Sean Drummond is a phenomenal main character. His combination of intelligence, strength and wit combined with his self-recognized flaws make him intriguing, likable and, most of all, human. I hope that Haig sticks with Drummond in all future novels. Additionally, I hope that Haig continues to churn these stories out as quickly as possible. Private Sector took less than a day for me to read and it was gripping from the first page to the last. I already need another fix!! Nelson, it's now your turn!!
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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
(4.5) Another Action Thriller by an Underappreciated Author, November 11, 2003
I was hooked on Brian Haig's central character JAG lawyer Sean Drummond when I read THE KINGMAKER (five star review of 5/13/03); thus, I resolved to read the earlier books in the series to watch both the character development and changes in the author's technique and style. I subsequently finished SECRET SANCTION (3.5 star review of 7/30/03) and found it enjoyable but not nearly in the same class as THE KINGMAKER. Before I could get to MORTAL ALLIES (#2 in the series), PRIVATE SECTOR was published and I decided to read it before starting the earlier book. I highly recommend both the author and this book, although for reasons summarized at the end of this review (some of which may be entirely personal) I did not find it as completely enjoyable as THE KINGMAKER. But it is a fast moving, excellently plotted, well crafted story and continues the character development of Sean Drummond, who has the potential to be one of the enduring protagonists of this genre. When Major Drummond is notified by his boss, General Clapper, that he is being assigned to the PRIVATE SECTOR law firm Cupler, Hutch, and Westin under a "loan out" program whose supposed goal is to broaden the experience of the JAG staff while creating goodwill in the public sector, he immediately begins to plot the best method to sabotage the assignment without creating such enmity between himself and Clapper that he effectively terminates his Army career. He realizes that the combination of his natural personality traits should easily be able to be honed to accomplish the task, and immediately begins to alienate those with whom he comes into contact. The one interesting element of the assignment is that Sean is replacing fellow officer Lisa Morrow, whom he has come to know and respect during previous assignments and for whom he harbors a great deal of apparently unrequited affection. When Lisa indicates a desire to meet Sean, he is both curious about what aspects of her experience at Cupler he needs to be briefed and hopeful that she may be more attracted to him than he expected. Unfortunately, their meeting never occurs due to Lisa's apparently random murder in a DC parking lot (this minor spoiler is included because it is revealed on the book jacket) and Sean immediately decides he should supplement the efforts of the DC police and the CID ( the Army's Criminal Investigation Division) in investigating Lisa's death. Since he quickly comes to believe that Lisa's death may be related to Lisa's work at Cupler, he realizes that in order to effectively further his goal of catching Lisa's killer he has remain in the good graces of both the partners of Cupler and General Clapper, not at all an easy task for Sean. As the cliché goes, the plot quickly thickens as further increasingly brutal and apparently random murders occur. Meanwhile Sean is involved in helping the firm's largest client, Morris Networks, a telecommunications firm spawned during the financial market and technological excesses of the nineties successfully win a major government contract. He soon suspects that Lisa's death and the other murders might somehow be related to Cupler `s representation of Moriss and it's "new economy" CEO Jason Morris. As the story unfolds, there are as usual in Haig's novels many excellent lines from Sean, a well thought out although convoluted plot, and a knowledgeable and quite informative discussion of the latest uses of sophisticated financial instruments and their accounting implications (a la Enron, which is mistakenly referred to as Exxon). This is an enjoyable and well told story; although I had the advantage of understanding the business aspects of the plot the details are not essential to the story. (I also had the disadvantage of knowing enough to be aggravated at his admittedly minor mistakes.) The author did excellent research and his information is essentially correct with regard to both the details and the overview. However, I was disappointed by the anti-corporate tone of the book, there are basically no honorable people either at Morris or Cupler. In addition, Sean's idiosyncratic characteristics actually were a little overdone at times during the early part of the story and stretched cleverness to the edge of inaneness, which bordered on losing credibility. My only major criticism is the technique of writing this story with Sean as the first party narrator but interspersing segments where the killer became the narrator. (There was no confusion when this occurred, it was identified with a change in typeface. I just found it a little disconcerting although I understand the author's reasons for utilizing the technique.) So, I highly recommend this book as a good legal/action mystery by a talented author. You will benefit from reading the earlier books in the series prior to this, but that is not at all necessary. But if you only have time for one Brian Haig book, I recommend THE KINGMAKER instead as a superior read. (It is now in paperback.) Tucker Andersen
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