23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
terrific espionage thriller, March 2, 2011
US Marine Corps sniper Kyle Swanson and his girlfriend CIA agent Lauren Carson are on a mission in Pakistan. However, they have been exposed by someone in their chain leading to Kyle's incarceration and Lauren blamed for the fiasco; she is accused of turning traitor by selling her boyfriend out and giving top secrets to an al Qaeda supporter.
Swanson and Carson need to extradite themselves from the mess they are in as the pair trust no one. Both share in common their high regard for CIA legend Jim Hall, who mentored each of them and was Lauren's lover at one time. They would have expected him to mount an extraction rescue, but he sent them on the mission that has the pair tied in knots. Neither wants to believe that Hall set them up to conceal his selling top secret information to a Pakistani warlord who supports converting al-Qaeda into a political party and to possess a nuclear arsenal. Hall has one problem; he must kill his former apprentice.
The latest Swanson Sniper tale (see Clean Kill), An Act of Treason is a terrific espionage thriller as an idolized hero turns traitor shaking Swanson's soul more than al Qaeda can. The story line is fast-paced though linear as the audience anticipates a sniper showdown, which happens in the Alps.
Harriet Klausner
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This series just keeps getting better and better, March 5, 2011
"An Act of Treason", the newest entry in the Kyle Swanson series by Coughlin and Davis, is the best book yet in a very fine series.
For those who may not know, author Jack Coughlin is one of the top living Marine snipers, with an excellent combat record in the Sandbox, and he brings that expertise and experience into play in these novels to give us a believable hero in Kyle Swanson.
Swanson's certainly not a Superman, at 5'9" and slight build, and can't perform superhuman stunts of derring-do, unlike some of the central characters of other series. He gets hurt; he gets captured. He sometimes loses fights to other characters.
But what he does do is persist, and he manages to use his hard-earned military skills to ultimately prevail in these books in a believable manner. That alone puts him a cut above much of the other offerings in the genre.
In this book, Coughlin and Davis skillfully blend sniper/military thriller with political and espionage elements to give us a novel with a wider-ranging focus than a simple shoot-`em-up. Locales range from Pakistan to DC to the Swiss Alps, with other stops along the way. The action's fast-paced and tightly plotted. The characters are fully realized, three dimensional, and consistently act believably (a major failing in many other books in the genre).
The crux of the story revolves around the treason and betrayal committed by Swanson's former friend and mentor Jim Hall when Hall decides to "retire" from the CIA by using his knowledge and background to support a Taliban takeover of the Pakistani government (nothing there that's not on the book's flyleaf) while padding his own pockets with untold wealth.
How Swanson takes on his own "old friend" is what you have to read for yourself. I promise you'll love it. Best Swanson book yet, and I can hardly wait for the next entry.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great till the end., April 30, 2011
I really loved this latest installment in the Gunny Swanson saga. He gives Stephen Hunter a run for his money. I didn't give five stars because of the last chapter. While necessary, there was feel of "I'm coming up on deadline so I better wrap this up". The rest of the book flowed nicely and was a very enjoyable read. I read it in two sittings.
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