Customer Reviews

Reign in hell.

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(14)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

William Diehl is a fine writer and has been for many years. I am a huge fan of Primal Fear, and its superior follow up Show of Evil. And because of that track record, I grabbed Reign in Hell as soon as it hit the selves.

Unfortunately, with a major change in tone and plot, Reign is a giant disappointment. Gone is the intense cat-and-mouse game that made Show so brilliant, nor the strong, unforgettable characters of Primal. Instead, we get a movie-of-the-week plot involving redneck militias with fantasies of armogeddon, with Martin Vail and Aaron Stampler thrown in for what seems to be the hell of it. These two characters do not fit into such a none-personal story, and their involvement is so convoluted that it makes almost every other event in the books seem unbelievable too.

But alas, too much legal speak and dumb-plot syndrome predominate the book, boring the first time reader and angering those who had read his works before. And that is a pity. Veil and Stampler were too of the most memorable characters to ever face each other. The way their story is resolved here makes the climax an anti-climax.

Martin Veil returns for his third book from Diehl. In this one, Martin wins a RICO case in small town America, then is offered a chance to be Asst. Attorney General of the U.S. to set up a RICO case against a hate group called The Sanctuary. The majority of the story is about the members of The Sactuary and how they got to be where they are. A lot of action filled robberies and military expeditions flavor this novel. And Aaron Stampler does return. This piece is written more in the style and research of Tom Clancy. A lot of politics and military aspects are covered. Diehl's back stories and flashbacks to flesh out the characters and their motivations is a strong point. The conclusion is sad , true and too frequently real.

A different Diehl but a great book.

What a disappointment. This book starts out giving us a very bright hero using his brains to take on a violent sociopath. It ends up as another shoot-em-up that reads like a blue print for a movie script rather than a novel. What a waste of time it was reading the final third of this book.

Reign in Hell is not a great book. Which is a real shame because the two previous Martin Veil books were amazing reads. Martin Veil is not even a necessary part of this book. If Diehl really wanted to tell this story he probably should have left Veil out of it. If you are going to try and read a Martin Veil book, try Primal Fear or Show of Evil. These are two outstanding books that you will enjoy from start to finish.

Though slow to start whilst setting the (complex) scene, Diehl brings us an intricate legal thriller. Whilst comparisons with Grisham could be made, this is no courtroom-based tale of "small-time lawyer takes on big bad law firm / pharmaceutical company / tobacco baron and wins". Here the players are all big time: Vail, master prosecutor; a right wing religious fanatic leading a militia of 1000s; and the President of the United States himself.

Vail, reknowned trial lawyer who has brought down massive companies and politicos before, is challenged by the Big Man himself to find a legal case against a religious-cult-leader before he starts a war of anarchy against the United States, and before the President comes up for re-election. With intimate knowledge of RICO legislation and all the backing of the FBI, Vail is set a task somewhat akin to taking the Mafia down for fraud.

In the meantime, a hostile army is being trained in guerilla warfare; banks and arms shipments are being raided; anonymous assassins are tracking key informants, witnesses, and Vail and his loved ones.

Apparently, the key players have featured in previous Diehl books. They bring their past with them, and for fans, Vail is the key player in this plot, but this book just as comfortably stands alone as a thriller in its own right.

The race is on for Vail and his team of "Wild Ones" against the militia and against the President's agenda.

Did you love the movie (or book) Primal Fear? If so, you will love the book Reign in Hell. In this story, Vail has the government backing him up. Stampler (who has changed his name and appearance) is "religious" leader of an army of militia. They go head to head in this war for power and peace.

Great characters, great story, and a great read.

William Diehl's book is an absorbing thriller about a rogue militia group. The only problem is that he decided to graft a Martin Vail book onto it. The result is that you spend 3/4 of the book waiting for some sort of fascinating legal and/or action showdown with Martin in the middle and instead he's cut out of the climax. The Aaron Stampler character is completely out of place in this novel. He adds little except a familiar name and a selling point for the novel. Diehl could have cut him out and nothing would have been lost. Still, the plot threads together nicely and I was up until 1 A.M. reading in a white heat trying to see how these elements would fit together. The ending works, but is disappointing in its result.

I just finished reading this book and tried to remember what really happened. The answer is not much. I am disappointed with this book as its my first and probably last Diehl. Martin Vail just didn't mean much to this story.

Well , the book started out ok. We're brought in at the end of a trail as a prelude to another different type of case. It rapidly goes downhill. All the other reviews cover most of the stupidity. So lets get to the "assault" part. It wouldnt take much to learn a "Spectre" gunship is actually a 4-engined C-130 gunship with 20mm and 7.62mm gatling guns that fire from one side of the aircraft. Theres is also a 105mm howitzer in the nose. These aircraft are NOT helicopters! NONE of these weapons are detachable or in anyway usable by pulling them off the mounts. They are electricaly powered and primed. And No way Sgt Williams could hold on to one. These arent hand weapons. As for the assault strategy I hope Mr Dielh never leads one.

I enjoyed the first two Martin Vail novels, and was quite disappointed by this one, for the above three reasons.

Poorly written -- it violates rules you can find in any basic creative writing book or class. It lists and tells rather than showing or describing, and it talks down to the reader. The book frequently resorts to simplistic "X happened, then Y happened" paragraphs rather than involving the reader in the events (the last paragraph of the book is a great example). Such writing tends not to evoke suspense or fear, and this book is no exception. It's obvious that Diehl didn't spend nearly as much time on this book as on his others.

Wandering storylines -- The inclusion of Aaron Stampler into this book feels artificial and forced. He has perhaps four scenes, five tops, and only one of them is very long or involved. Diehl occasionally drops some interesting hints, but the character does not grow at all, and we gain no further insight into his motives or past.

Atrocious politics -- I don't need every novel I read to vindicate my politics, but there are parts of this book which perpetuate alarming fallacies about RICO as well as the Waco incident. It is ironic that the Turner Diaries are widely criticized for their well-known slant and unconscionable ideas, but that this book then goes on to unfairly lump David Koresh in with Jim Jones and equate the Branch Davidians with racist militia organizations. (Watch the documentary WACO: THE RULES OF ENGAGEMENT for some interesting points, as well as proof of the Davidians' rejection of racism.) RICO, touted as a wonderful way to chase down criminals, is in reality a catch-all, open-ended series of statutes used primarily to harass citizens who do not have the wherewithal to resist such intrusions (my family has firsthand experience of this).

If Diehl's intention here was truly to depict a struggle between two sets of bad guys, he did it poorly, because he over-simplified it. One need not be a religious fanatic or a racist to feel alarm at the shocking atrocities perpetuated by the government against its own citizens in recent years, or wince at the vast authority politicians seem to feel comfortable exercising over private citizens' lives. Yet anyone who dared present that view in the novel was made into a caricature.

In short, I don't recommend the book, not only because of its simplistic treatment of complex issues but because it falls flat as a thriller as well. It is far below what we already know Diehl is capable of.