Top Hook [Mass Market Paperback]

Gordon Kent (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 4, 2003

The Alan Craik novels have earned GORDON KENT electrifying praise for their breakneck pace and raw emotion, as well as for some of the most remarkable heroes--and villains--in fiction today. Now U.S. Navy Officer Craik is back in action, all because one man, fueled by anger, ambition, and pain, has ignited an explosive chain of events that threatens not only two good careers, but world peace itself....

TOP HOOK

It’s springtime in Newport and Alan Craik and his wife, Rose Siciliano, are on top of the world. She’s headed for astronaut training; he’s going into an espionage school. Parents, pilots, lovers, and loyal navy officers through and through, the husband-and-wife team are eager to take the next step. Then it all comes crashing down.

In a Virginia suburb of D.C., a senior CIA man has committed a series of clandestine acts that have led him into the most dangerous place he has ever been. Now George Shreed’s dark secret is in danger--and a woman is demanding a million dollars in exchange for her silence. Shreed’s next desperate move is to find someone to take the blame for the information he himself leaked. The fall guy will be a woman: Rose Siciliano.

Suddenly, an investigation targets Rose, and, by association, her husband, Alan. And as a circle of treachery tightens around them, events race out of anyone’s control. In command of an airborne unit on the USS Thomas Jefferson in Trieste, Alan is contacted by the same woman who is blackmailing Shreed. Soon he is being pulled into a vortex of spies and counterspies while a series of stunning escalations take his high-tech airborne attachment--and the world--to the brink of war.

In the most dangerous region on earth, Alan Craik is crashing through forbidden airspace to find a spy, code-named “Top Hook,” whose act of betrayal is more complex--and chilling--than anyone can guess.

From the deafening roar of jet fighters launching off an aircraft carrier to nerve-shattering clandestine meetings in Turkey, North Africa, and Pakistan, Top Hook is a relentless turbocharged ride--and the best work yet from the most original writer in military adventure today.


From the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This is the third Alan Craik and Rose Siciliano novel by Kent (pseudonym of a father-son writing team) and its falls into a predictable pattern of military-techno action, minus some of the usual suspense. With the villain revealed in the first chapter, the drama relies on the ensuing chase around the world, led by married U.S. Navy pilots Rose and Alan. As the novel begins, Rose is on a fast-track assignment to the astronaut program, and Alan is on his way to a coveted spook assignment with the CIA, but they find their idyllic careers derailed when a highly placed traitor in the CIA fingers them as spies to cover up his own actions. Rose and Alan are bewildered and angry, but the stink of treason is on them. Aided by some loyal and highly qualified friends, cops, FBI agents, naval officers and techno-specialists, they struggle against time, bureaucracy and a shrewd mole. Meanwhile, the mole is jarred into premature action by the blackmail threats of a mysterious woman who knows his secret and is resourceful enough to evade the squads of Serb hitmen sent to kill her. The skullduggery is set against the backdrop of a war between Pakistan and India and a confrontation between China and the U.S., and loaded with gunfights, sex, some snappy dialogue and the aerial hijinks of supersonic jet fighters. The high testosterone doses satisfy, but best is the complex and clever web of motive Kent weaves for the mole, which is just about the only surprise in this otherwise ordinary thriller. (June 4)Forecast: Kent's first two novels Rules of Engagement and Peacemakerwere dynamos, but this one only treads water. Sales should remain steady, but readers may begin slipping away if Kent doesn't adjust the level of suspense to match his consistently excellent action.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

The father-and-son former naval aviators behind the Kent nom deplume again mix aviation and espionage as effectively as in Rules ofEngagement (1999). The protagonists here are husband-and-wife navypilots Alan Craik (of Rules and Peacemaker, 2001) and RoseSiciliano. Targeted by the intelligence establishment as scapegoatsfor the criminality of a revered senior operative, they discover thatsaving their "lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor," not tomention their careers, requires using all their resources to exposethe operation known as Top Hook. The authors' characterization andpacing remain superior, and they draw on their own experiences tovividly portray the post-Gulf War and, to some extent, post-9-11military establishment as well as the conflict of generations withinthe American intelligence community. The concept of thecharacter-driven thriller had seemed almost a contradiction interms--until recently, when in the hands of the likes of Gordon Kent,the descriptor has begun to make exciting sense. Roland Green
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: 572 pages
• Publisher: Dell (March 4, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0440237491
• ISBN-13: 978-0440237495
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 1.3 x 6.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,260,240 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Gordon Kent was (is, I suppose) two people, my son - Christian Cameron, author of TYRANT and WASHINGTON AND CASEAR and other books - and me. The reason for the pseudonym was the obvious one that two names on a cover were not thought as good as one. And of course the one needed to be anglo and male; my suggestion of Max Cohen got nowhere, as did several dozen others we trotted by the publisher. Eventually, we settled on Gordon Kent: Gordon was my father's name, my son's middle name; Kent, oh, well.

We wrote eight novels - the Alan Craik books - under this pseudonym, starting with NIGHT TRAP (RULES OF ENGAGEMENT in the US, probably one of the most overworked titles there is) and ending with the much darker (and more satisfying) SPOILS OF WAR and THE FALCONER'S TALE. The books were about the air side of the US Navy, mostly about intelligence, but with a lot of derring-do that real intel officers never get to play at. They were usually fun to write because we'd both been in the navy, my son a good deal longer than I; we had our differences, as any two people must, but it was a surprisingly workable relationship. Lots of long-distance telephone calls, occasional meetings to go fishing and use the time in the car to plan books. We worked from outlines made on those trips, then divided the scenes up - we quickly learned who did which sorts of scenes and which characters better - and then we wrote and exchanged files and bickered and praised and wound up with a book.

Is Gordon Kent finished? We wonder. We're both writing our own books now under our own names, but occasionally we feel a nudge to go back to that partnership. Maybe, maybe....

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars shoot em up thrill a paragraph, June 7, 2002

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Top Hook (Hardcover)

Everything looks great to Alan Craik and his spouse Rose Siciliano. The CIA appears ready to tap him for a highly regarded espionage position and the astronaut school has accepted Rose. Much faster than their rise to the top is their collapse caused by the machinations of someone else.

A woman in Venice blackmails CIA treasonous mole George Shreed. Panicking and already over the edge with his wife near death from cancer, George needs a fall guy who would have been on the project but not quite visible and with little protection to dub as the double agent selling secrets to the Chinese. He selects Rose. His covert actions lead the CIA to stop the promotions of Craik and Siciliano pending the results of an investigation into the activities of the duo. Their careers come to a halt but refusing to idly sit by as the taint of treason is painted on them, Alan and Rose begin their own inquiries into what short circuited their lives.

The third Craik-Siciliano thriller is loaded with action, action, and more action somewhat at the cost of character development. The story line emphasizes the shoot em up thrill a paragraph that never slows down, but for new readers Alan and Rose never seem quite real. Strangely the double agent is probably the most complete player in the tale as the audience understands his fears, doubts, and motives. Fans who enjoy an energizing espionage thriller will want to read Gordon Kent's latest global stimulating novel.

Harriet Klausner

4.0 out of 5 stars a good book for snow day, January 17, 2010

By 

mark (greenwood lake , n.y u.s.a) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Top Hook (Mass Market Paperback)

I found this book very entertaining. it was the first Kent book I've read and plan on reading more of his work.

4.0 out of 5 stars Well paced Thriller, June 15, 2005

By 

Douglas De Bono - Author of No Safe Harbor (Minnetonka, mn United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Top Hook (Mass Market Paperback)

This is a well plotted thriller that keeps you wondering right up to the end. There are plenty of action scenes, and a good deal of carrier off the deck sequences in the book. The writers' naval experience shows.

Basically, everything is going great for the Craiks (for about 50 pages), then the government goes after both of them with a vengeance.

I think that once the government comes after you though, it is pretty hard to get things turned around. There will always be that taint and suspicion lurking in the background. Who knows maybe that is what the authors plan for the future.

A very pleasant read.