Customer Reviews

The Zero Hour

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Having read this novel sometime ago, I made myself go back and re-read it before attempting to critique it. Now, after going through it a second time my impressions of "The Zero Hour" have not changed. Joseph Finder captures the reader's attention with a daring jail brake from a South African Prison. If this novel was a chess game I would say this opening was to the point. I was hooked. Add a rather inventive plot concerning the revenge of an incredibly wealthy man by the destruction of a clandestine computer system which practically runs our planet, and this story picked up steam in a hurry. Where it did run into a snag was in the character of Sarah Cahill, the FBI agent that ultimately saves the day. Her character seems too weak and hardly at all a match for "The Prince of Darkness". It would be nice if a female characters in Sarah's position could be portrayed as strong and confident. The fact that she is able to foil, perhaps the greatest professional terrorist of all time is a fluke at best. The ending of this novel ruined all the good work that had gone before. This one looks like it was made for television. The truth of the matter is that professional operatives are rarely stopped, and when they are, it is by law enforcement individuals that are equally as brilliant. Two evenly matched oponents in a real life game of chess, that is what makes novels in this genre work

It's unfortunate that this book is out of print-- I suppose that to some it might seem that the events of 9/11 have rendered this tale of a terrorist attack on NYC moot.

Not so. Finder's story, set after the first attack on the WTC, is a bit spooky in how it manages to anticipate some of what did occur years later. Details about the world of terrorism and counter-terrorism that may have seemed merely nice detail work originally now have a special kind of resonance. For that reason alone, this book would be worth a look.

But that's not all it has to offer. Finder combines the tech-savvy detail of Clancy with the personal drama and driving suspense of Ludlum. We get a whole cast of characters that are drawn well enough to engage us in the story without stopping the narrative push.

Action, surprises, twists and a grippingly real premise-- the book manages to entertain and give you something to think about when it's over. A great read. I can only hope that the release of Finder's new novel Paranoia will fuel interest in his earlier works so that this sees print again, because it deserves to be out there.

This is the second book by this author I have read, and both have been very enjoyable. When an exiled US industralist decides he wants revenge on the people who ruined him there he hires the best terrorist he can find to do the work.

"the prince of darkness" as he is known in the trade (by the few who know him at all) is an intelligent and totaly amoral character. On the law enforcemnt side in the US we have Sarah Cahill a former expert in terrorist actions in the FBI.

This book it has to be said, is full of anagrams, but then I suspect that the world of law enforcemnt is full of them now - and being somewhat of a techno-thriller they go with the genre.

One of the things I liked about this novel was that none of the main characters are invulernable. They are people with lives of their own in an extraordinary situation. Sarah is not as 'strong' as her terroist opponent - but that only makes her more believable.

I'm looking forward to more books by this author, and if you like thrillers this book is worth picking up.

Having read the very positive reviews of the book I expected a gripping thriller with a very imaginative plot and an author who has a deep understanding of the world he is writing about.

But this is far from what one gets in this book. A very shallow cast of characters is welded into a story which becomes totally predictable after the first 20 pages. Perhaps the author should have talked to Mark Rich - the real-world commodities trader who fled to Switzerland to avoid a prison sentence for tax evasion in the US - before crafting the sinister Malcolm Dyson, who is longing for world economic destruction from his Geneva home and Zug offices, and get a real handle on the life of a fugitive. Or is this ridiculously exaggerated resemblance to living persons purely coincidental?

All this would still be excusable if it were not for the author's obnoxious tendency to hide his further lack of understanding of suspense by introducing and explaining zillions of unnecessary acronyms used by the intelligence and finance community on every other page of the book. And to make matters of his pseudo-knowledge worse he also embarks - like a condescending schoolmaster - on a crash course in recent history by throwing in some side stories on the Oklahoma, the World Trade Center and the Lockerbie bombings and the hostage taking in the Grand Mosque in Mecca. Nevertheless, I now know that the "...American Euro-Copter AS350B ASTAR [was] formerly known as the Aerospatiale ASTAR 350B..." and that a "...NOTAM is a Notice to Aviators and Mariners which delcares a certain area off-limits."

As for only one of the numerous weak links in the story: It takes a high degree of ignorance of the financial community to imagine the CEO ("...or chief executive officer") of one of the world's largest banks running around with SWIFT authenticator keys (which is - I suppose - what Finder alludes to when describing the "Network" and which is one of the very few widely used financial acronyms which the author does not mention in his book) and having these code keys snatched under his nose by a high class D&S ("...or dominance and submission") callgirl.

In summary, this book can only be recommended to somebody who desperately wants to know what CBT and some other 250 acronyms mean. And reader beware: CBT - as explained on page 292 of the paperback version - does not stand for Chicago Board of Trade!

What's with the above reviews? Doesn't writing or story matter anymore? Details? Yes, this book's got details. No piece of information is too trivial for Finder. How can anyone slog through this tripe? Reading this book is like banging your head against the wall. International intrigue has never been so boring. The only suspense here involved skimming through the three-page chapters looking for ANYTHING of interest. Take a nap instead

This book reads more like a bad documentary on terrorism than an interesting novel. The author's constant attempts to show how much factual information he has about "secret information" is distracting from the plot and appears only as a cheap sellout to make money.

The plot was pedantic and the characters were cardboard. I would suggest avoiding this poor imitation of "Day of the Jackal."

Very strong start, interesting idea. But the love interest was silly, the sex too graphic, the stupidity of the police/FBI unbelievable, and ultimately the story itself is disappointing. It was as if he created a great bad guy but didn't have a real reason for him to do what he did. Finder should have worked on the plot more, and left out a lot of the See How Much I Know? and See Where I've Been? information. He overdescribes almost everything. He's a good writer who needs more discipline.

This book started off great with an intriquing prison break and a demented vengeful James Bond type villian but veered off course quickly. The characters were uninteresting except for the ex-spy. The dialogue had the same voice. The prose was bland and the flow of the book was halted by arcane details. It seemed like a poor imitation of a Michael Critchon or Ludlum book - they were the masters at intreweaving facts and details with the story. The story was totally predictable and the major twist with the lead FBI character was hacky and unoriginal. The only fun part was that the book was written in 1996 and technology has changed so much since then. People talking about pagers, CD-Roms and Walkmans and a computer being so advanced because it has one whole gigabyte of memory was kind of funny.

I was looking for a story about assassins when I picked up this book. Its premise around a terrorist, sometime assassin, did not fit my interest but I could not put the book down.

In this match of wills between the terrorist, Henrik Baumann, code name "Prince of Darkness" and FBI Agent Sarah Cahill and her task force is an engaging thriller. The author invites us into the minds of Baumann and the FBI task force. Contracted by a businessman seeking revenge on the United States, Baumann, a cold blooded killer, meticulously plans and executes a devastating attack on American soil. He leaves behind him a trail of bodies of those who get in the way, and the FBI is not immune. Agent Cahill, among others, will pay a steep price during the hunt.

The author has a tendency to give information dumps to explain how things work from customs agents to bomb triggers. Sometimes those sections get cumbersome and slow down the story. Some of the "new" technology is actually dated as of this writing.

Agent Cahill and the task force use intellect and vast resources in the race to close in on Baumann. The Prince of Darkness is aptly named as he uses murder and subterfuge as formidable weapons to finish the contract, and he has always completed contracts. The end game is thrilling, heart stopping, and satisfying.

I plan to read more of this author's work.

It's been some time since I've read a novel that really could give you chills. Between the hard core ways of the Prince of Darkness and the explaination of all the hi-tech happenings it kept you on the edge of your chair as you rolled through page after page. Mr. Finders novels always have been a good read and I find this one to not only follow in pattern but to be outstanding. Read it if you only have a little time, it won't take you long.