Customer Reviews

Whirlwind: A Novel

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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

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.

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

The passing of the Cold War dealt a severe blow to the spy-thriller literary genre, as cloak-and-dagger interplay between "western" and "eastern" intelligence agents became almost overnight an historical anachronism. In *Whirlwind*, however, Joseph Garber manages to revive the spy novel by positing that in some situations, anyway, intrigue between American and Russian agents still might form the basis for a good story. Overall, he succeeds in this endeavor, as *Whirlwind* not only is an engrossing page-turner, but the basic story line posited by the author is almost eerily plausible.

The basic plot that Garber weaves in *Whirlwind* involves the theft of an American top-secret weapon by Russian agents, but there is a lot more involved here, including distant maneuverings by the ever-ambitious Chinese, duplicitous U.S. government officials, for-hire [...] organizations, and on and on. The story is inventive, filled with twists and turns that for the most part are convincing and authentically surprising, and there is even some psychological exploration of the major characters. Overall, Garber's imagination, knowledge of the "spy business," and his literary talents render this a truly good read for anyone who might enjoy this type of novelistic thriller.

The very nature of the "spy thriller" genre imposes limitations on the work as "literature," however. The main characters, while certainly interesting, are almost cartoon-like in their near-omniscience, their almost unlimited powers to cope with any situation, no matter how dire. The female lead, the Russian agent Irina Kolodenkova, is, *of course*, gorgeous, blonde, brilliant, and almost infinitely resourceful. The book's hero, the out-of-retirement CIA operative Charlie McKenzie, while unique in his advanced age, is all-knowing and James Bond-like in his powers, including his powers of recuperation from physical injury.

That these protagonists, and also villainous South African mercenary Johan Schmidt can miraculously and often instantaneously solve any problem and escape any threat becomes the literary device of choice for Garber. While this allows the story to move forward vigorously, it starts to resemble in places the ancient Greek dramatic institution of *deus ex machina*, whereby whenever decisive solutions were needed within a play the gods would descend from on high to resolve all problems. This "geez, these people can do ANYTHING" tendency might cause some readers to roll their eyes after a while.

Another issue that might be a bit off-putting is the preponderance of blood and gore that punctuates the novel throughout. People squeamish about explicit descriptions of violence are hereby warned away.

I confess that *Whirlwind* is not the kind of novel I ordinarily would read, and yet I found it interesting and highly engrossing. The political/moral world-view revealed by Garber here is one that is cynical and hard-boiled, but in light of where trends seem to be taking us in the United States, I found his skepticism about political leaders and nation-states to be uncomfortably plausible. Overall, it's a good read.

If you lower your demands for excellence in credibility and crank up your tolerance for a full-scale scale action intrigue story, then you're ready to read WHIRLWIND. WHIRLWIND ensures that people who love their mysteries to take them on a heart-stopping chase where to get caught is to die will be more than happy with this book. My first experience with Joseph R. Garber was when I read his pulse-quickening thriller VERTICAL RUN and this book matches it for pace and all-out entertainment value.

The crisis begins when a couple of Russian spies who get away with a computer disk and a mysterious box break into a top secret government laboratory developing the latest and greatest in high-tech weaponry. These two items amount to critical information about project Whirlwind, a project that is hoped will put the US far ahead in the arms race.

The man charged with the recovery of the items is the National Security Advisor, Sam is the only name we're given for him, and he can only think of one person who might be capable of tracking down and capturing the surviving Russian spy and returning the secrets of Whirlwind. Charlie McKenzie, a retired CIA operative is that man, but Sam has double crossed Charlie in the past and the antagonism between the two men is immense. Charlie agrees to take the job, but not before making Sam pay through the nose for his services and the first part of the chase gets underway.

But Sam doesn't trust Charlie to keep his part of the agreed job and puts unrealistically tight controls on him, such as a tail, marked spending money and a bugged car. His fears are well-founded because Charlie senses that Sam's not being 100 per cent honest with him and quickly slips the Feds who are tailing him and ditches the bugged car before tracking down Irina Kolodenkova, the elusive Russian.

As soon as Charlie disappears Sam switches to plan B and calls Johan Schmidt. Schmidt is a ruthless mercenary with a team of more than 500 professionals capable of tracking down and neutralising anyone. Amazingly, Schmidt and Charlie McKenzie also have had an antagonistic history with each other, so much so that Schmidt is champing at the bit at the opportunity of killing Charlie. Small world, no? What follows is a frantic chase around America with the killers gradually closing the net on Irina and Charlie. But Charlie is elusive and has friends everywhere while Irina is much more resourceful than she first seems and together they are more than a match for their pursuers.

On the surface this is a fairly straightforward story: Russian spy snatches top secret information; ex-CIA operative tracks her down. But the inclusion of the second team in the chase adds tantalising complexity to the situation and then there is a hint of political intrigue hidden behind ulterior motives just to add spice. The further the story goes the more twisted grows the plot culminating in a super-charged ending.

In keeping with true action thrillers, the pace of the story is frantic thanks to a ticking clock scenario imposed by a time limit placed on the required capture by Sam. I thought this particular aspect of the story was a little contrived with no real compelling reason for the time limit ever given to us. Not so in keeping with many action books was the effort by Garber to give his principal characters a lot of background detail making them much more believable and us much more sympathetic towards them.

I felt the only real weakness in the story was the portrayal of Johan Schmidt. For a supposed professional soldier with high standards when it comes to discipline, his over-confidence and arrogance was totally at odds with the man he is supposed to be. When we are initially led to believe that a guy is the best of the best, I would expect that to hold true for the rest of the book. In my opinion this changed as the book progressed and the believability suffered as a result.

Joseph Garber has produced a second all-out thrill ride of a book, combining impossible escapes with some ruthlessly violent scenes. It's entertaining in the same way that Matthew Reilly's SCARECROW is entertaining, with action all the way.

Whirlwind is one of those thrillers where a memorable character makes the book delightful. Charlie McKenzie is that character.

As the book opens, the national security advisor to the president of the United States has a terrible problem . . . a top secret next generation defense technology has been stolen by a Russian agent. The problem is so desperate that a call is placed to Charlie, who's been denied, imprisoned and deflated by the same presidential team in the past. But Charlie's been waiting for this moment . . . and knows what he wants in return.

Charlie's the best there is at CIA dirty tricks and wet work. Although he's not young any more, he's developed extraordinary cunning. He can read other people like most of us can read the printed page . . . and that gives him an enormous edge in handling any problem.

The bad news is that Charlie knows that he will be betrayed again, unless he looks out for himself and his family. And he's prepared to do both. That knowledge is soon reinforced when the government brings in an old nemesis to dog his tracks and eliminate Charlie after he's done his work.

Few things surprise Charlie, but Irina Kolodenkova proves to vastly exceed his expectations . . . in ways that remind him of his dead wife. Finding himself both attracted to her and protective of her, he still has to be sure that the deadly secret remains in U.S. hands.

The plot of this story has several delightful qualities. There's an element in the book that reminded me of the best of the Sherlock Holmes stories featuring careful questions and thinking that lead to logical answers to puzzles. Charlie is also one of those unflappable types, and seeing him deal with severe problems in debonair ways reminded me of some of the roles that Fred Astaire played. In addition, there's a comic element that would make this book into a great screenplay for a movie. I hope that will follow.

The downside of the book is that it has too much gratuitous violence and sadism.

On the positive side, I was impressed that the "secret" turns out to have a potential basis in science that is vastly more credible than 99 of 100 thrillers I read that use that plot device.

Nice work, Mr. Garber!

Joseph Garber's second novel is a monumental disappointment when compared to his exciting debut, "Vertical Run". Simply put, "Whirlwind" is a stale rehash of every tired trick that's ever been trotted out in spy fiction.

All of the same old typecast characters are here: the crafty old know-it-all protagonist who routinely achieves the impossible and then cracks wise with a wink, the deranged antagonist who derives pleasure only from doling out pain and enjoying refined living, the power-hungry bureaucrat who's pulling the strings behind the scenes for his own political gain, and the beautiful young female Russian agent out to prove that she's capable of her mission. No characters develop at all, even although they do flirt with the idea on occasion. For instance, the ex-CIA agent was once framed and taken down in disgrace for following false orders given to him by the bureaucrat. And while he may occasionally privately question how he can always be so sure of his decisions even though they have cost both him and his family dearly in the past, he will always completely forget all self-doubt and plow ahead with no additional thought whatsoever. On one page, he's recounting how he promised himself that he'd never get his family involved in his work and the on the next, his son is flying his getaway plane (that's right, flying his getaway plane) with all moral uncertainties apparently left behind at baggage claim. The beautiful young Russian spy is almost pathetic. She worked this hard to achieve her rank in order to show up her chauvinistic father only to inexplicably find herself falling for the swaggering American spy who reminds her of him? Have some dignity, comrade! The killing machine antagonist who became such because he was scared and angry as a child and now listens to opera while torturing his opponents is so very been-there-done-that. Just cast Rutger Hauer in your mind and you're 90% of the way there.

The action starts out interestingly enough but then falters miserably, turning into a protracted chase scene where everyone is searching for a pair of stolen defense secrets in order to advance his or her own agenda. The items sought after are symbolic of the problems with this book, i.e. being boring and unoriginal. The first is a "surprise" element that eventually reveals itself to be as exciting as a cinder block; if I told you here, it wouldn't ruin any real surprise in the book. When its true nature is revealed, you almost feel cheated - it's of no immediate threat or benefit to any faction, it doesn't "do" anything, its long-term potential is never even really explained in any depth - in short, you're given no reason to believe that everyone should be so motivated to retrieve this object, and therefore no reason to care who ends up with it in the end. The second object is a computer disk - that's right, espionage fiction's version of the microfilm cartridge circa 10 - 20 years ago. To top it off, it contains what we're led to believe are the nation's most dear defense project secrets in the form of a Powerpoint presentation. I've never worked in a top secret facility, but if this truly is the norm for safeguarding our nation's critical data, I may never go to sleep again. At least they kept it on the world's most indestructible disk - it rides around in people's pockets as they run, climb, get shot, fall down, etc. yet works with no problem in the end.

The only payoff comes at the very end where, if the reader has assumed the this-is-so-bad-it's-good mindset, he or she is really treated to a very special series of events. Outcomes devolve from predictable and trite to outright ridiculous with each page. Some necessary resolutions are explained away in careless one-liners ("he got away now, but I'll get him someday" - please tell me that no editor thought that there was sequel potential in this thing) while others play out to unbelievable happy-ending-at-all-costs finales. During the epilogue, you will roll your eyes so far, you may actually be able to see your own brain - and it will plaintively ask you "why did you do this to me?"

All in all, the book reads like a worse-than-usual Jerry Bruckheimer movie. Re-read that last statement again very carefully in case you're still considering buying this book. If you are looking for a good paperback read, I can honestly recommend Garber's earlier work "Vertical Run", which was just about everything that this book wasn't.

Security failed at the New Mexico base when two generators exploded. The blasts enable Russian spy Irina Kolodenkova to obtain a top secret disc and an even higher classified block of the deadliest weapon ever made, Whirlwind. Irina flees for her country's San Francisco embassy so that the seventy pounds weapon of mass destruction can be sent to Moscow.

Sam, the National Security Advisor knows that this incident could hurt national security, but worse derail his plans to run for the Oval office. He recruits his best dirty jobs person, former CIA Agent fiftyish widower Charlie McKenzie to "save the country" by recovering the disc and the block; use any means including murder to stop Irina from delivering the weapon in exchange for $20 million. Charlie rejects the patriotic cry because he spent two years in prison as the sacrificial lamb protecting the administration especially his bosses from taking falls from grace, but grabs the loot. Charlie catches up to Irina, but Sam's second agent Johan Schmidt catches up with both of them with the intent of killing the duo and retrieving the disk and the block.

This is an exciting action-packed espionage thriller that focuses on a series of chases in which Charlie is either the pursuer or the pursued, which makes him seem more like an athletic late twenties stud. Except for Charlie, whose ironic wit makes him human albeit super spy, much of the rest of the key players seem cartoonist. Still fans who take delight in a wild spy vs. spy vs. spy etc. (Chinese and corporation too) adventure will want top join Charlie on his quest.

Harriet Klausner

... but a page-turner. Great for airplanes and airport terminals. Characters and plots are cartoon-ish ... belief not only has to be willingly suspended, it has to be fired. Garber's Vertical Run is similar. As essentially silly as they are, I will buy his next book, but save it for those moments that call for mindless diversions during those frustrating waits between connections or take-offs and landings.

I loved Vertical Run. So as I was looking on my bookshelf, I was wondering if Mr. Garber had written another book. And he's not that prolific of writer. But we've got Whirlwind which I did enjoy. I'd say that Vertical Run was a little bit better but I'd have no trouble endorsing this book. Good characters. Well written. Try it.