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20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
(4 1/2) A Flawed Hero Battles Despicable Opponents, August 19, 2004
This review is from: Whirlwind: A Novel (Hardcover)
The POSTIVES:
1) A well crafted intriguing plot with many surprising twists
2) Interesting, well developed central characters
3) Fast paced action
4) The wonderful cynical commentary woven into the story concerning the motivations of some despicable political operatives
5) An epilogue that cleverly ties up all the loose ends in a satisfying and somewhat surprising manner
The NEGATIVES
1) Unnecessary violence and scenes of torture portrayed in excessive detail
2) Action in the final climatic scene that defies credibility even by the standards of such thrillers
I really enjoyed this action-thriller by Joseph Garber featuring unjustly disgraced CIA agent Charlie McKenzie. Charlie is relaxing at home with his daughter and grandson when he receives a panicked call from the president's national security advisor (a true sleazeball) concerning a national emergency so extreme (way beyond only a crisis) that the President has asked him to secretly recruit Charlie to utilize his unique skills in the service of his country. After some wonderful negotiating (which in other circumstances might be labeled blackmail), Charlie agrees to take the assignment to recover some top secret weapons technology codenamed WHIRLWIND which has been stolen by a Russian spy named Irina Kolodenkova. (Who, in a surprising twist, is not the villian of this story.)
This simple plot is made interesting by its myriad complications and a somewhat realistic technological premise; but it is the interaction of the characters and the psychological elements of the tale which result in much more than the standard storyline of this genre (which could be summarized as the struggle of an heroic -but flawed - individual opposed by the overwhelming resources of a major and unprincipled opponent). Charlie assumes that once he has located Irina and recovered the WHIRLWIND information, his knowledge will become a liability and he will be considered expendable, so he has to figure out how to accomplish his mission while preserving his future. At times this effort results in an uneasy alliance of convenience between Irina and Charlie, both of whom need each other if they are to remain alive once a super efficient paramilitary organization headed by a truly evil individual named Johan Schmidt is also hired to recover Whirlwind.
Details are impossible without spoilers, and in any case they wouldn't do justice to the enjoyment which this novel provides since much of it comes from the psychological elements and the tone and the interplay between the characters. There were a few instances where the description phrases were essentially prose poetry. My only reservations are detailed above, especially the violence, and this is my reason for not rating it a full five stars. I understand that it adds to the intensity of the story and provided additional support to the degree of danger faced by Charlie and Irina, but it was too sickeningly graphic for me although relegated to mercifully brief episodes.
In summary, this book is aptly titled WHIRLWIND, not only because that was the clever codename for the technology but also because while reading the story I felt gripped by the same WHIRLWIND in which the characters had been caught up. Highly recommended.
Disclaimer: I was furnished an advanced reader's copy of this book by the publisher based on the type of novels which I frequently review. I do not know the author or anyone affiliated with the publisher, and made no commitments concerning any review that I might write. However, this note is in the spirit of full disclosure, so the reader may decide if this factor may have influenced my opinion in any manner.
Tucker Andersen
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Espionage thriller, September 4, 2004
This review is from: Whirlwind: A Novel (Hardcover)
Now that the Cold War is a thing of the past, new spy novels are hard to come by.
Whirlwind, by Joseph Garber, fills the gap admirably. A Russian spy obtains classified info on a weapon and holes up at the Russian embassy in San Francisco. She's hunted by CIA agent Charlie McKenzie, hired by a presidential hopeful, to `do anything' to stop Irina from passing on the information in exchange for lotsa money. But Charlie proves duplicitous, with another whole agenda, so his bosses send yet another agent to snag both Irina and Charlie (are you still with me?). So what's a guy like Charlie, both pursued and pursuing, to do?
Read Whirlwind and find out.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Getting even time. Revenge is sweet., August 17, 2004
This review is from: Whirlwind: A Novel (Hardcover)
James R. Garber is a new adventure tale novelist to me. This is not the first novel he has written, however, and I have ordered Vertical Run, another of his books, from Amazon..com.. It comes highly recommended by reviewers, and if it is as well written as this one (and I see no reason why it should not be), it will be very entertaining and just as hard to put down.
Charles McKenzie is an old pro government agent, whose specialty was executing sanctions, until he was assigned to a job that backfired and his superiors have double-crossed him and hung him out to dry. He went to prison for a year-and-a-half, lost his pension, after 30 years of faithful service, and as a result he feels revengeful. Now, they need him again for a special job: a Russian agent, a beautiful young girl, has stolen a top military secret, including a device for electronic warfare and a computer disk, and the very man who set Charlie up before is begging his assistance in retrieving the stolen materials and capturing the enemy agent, with the clear implication that she will die under their interrogation..
Charlie has his opportunity to even the score and get his good name back.
This is a very suspenseful novel. It is extremely well written and appears to be carefully researched. I enjoyed it immensely, and I have no doubt you shall, too.
Joseph H. (Joe) Pierre
author Handguns and Freedom...their care and maintenance
and other books
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