I'm not sure what to make of this book. It was a mixture of the good, the bad, and the weird. The SOBs are sent to then Soviet Russia to infiltrate a computer center to find evidence of who was behind the destruction of a Korean airliner. The crew decides to add destroying the whole center, in a silly way, as well as wreaking destruction all across the Sakhalin island. Much of the adventure has the gang going around the island like a merry-go-round, gathering an arsenal of weapons and causing all kinds of trouble for the soviets. As far as an action novel goes, there is enough to like in that department, but overall, this book is a demonstration that when a publisher has a hectic schedule of pumping out books in a series like this, not all random writers for hire are going to be top notch talent like the Philipson and Hardy books are.
The writing was decent at times and at times not so much, and poor or oddball editing didn't help. At one point, on page 112, when the SOBs are going to assault Popolov's house, Barrabas instructs some of his crew- "Nate, Billy Two and Hayes- you'd better discard your uniforms and go in like us." Go in where I don't know, but these three disappear into the ether, and later on the main group is on another portion of the island on page 130, and the three magically show up in a emergency vehicle and start shooting at Barrabas. Umm... what? Some minor strangeness here and there as well, but at least the story moved along at a good pace and the action was ok. A sub plot among the KGB officers added some meat to the story, and the novel had a good ending, I was on the edge of my seat, the final chapters were done well. This bumped up my rating a star.
One glaring issue I had with the book overall is the lack of characterization. This title has the textbook definition of cardboard cutout characters. There was no banter between the SOBs, and their personalities could have come from a mannequin factory. If you are a completist, this book can get you by, it does bring some stuff to the table, but if you are looking for just the better titles in the series, I would suggest skipping this one.
New author this time around and this is one of his only two titles in the series which based on this title was probably a good idea.
New member of the Team is introduced to replace Bishop the pilot Jose Sanchez who has some very impressive references indeed trained by the British SAS, ex member of Delta Force been drifting around as a Merc for a while, speaks numerous languages fluently, crack shot and pilot extraordinaire sounds like just what the Team needs.
A Korean airliner has been shot down whilst in Soviet air space and whilst this would normally get a shrug of the shoulders from US officials an American congressman is on board resulting in a bristling in the ranks and demands to the Soviets for an explanation.
Nothing forthcoming the SOB's are dispatched to learn who shot down the airliner and why.
Bit of a romp here where the SOB's basically run riot on the Soviet territory Sakhalin Island and destroy most of it.
When the identity of the person who ordered the airliner to be shot down is revealed to be a high ranking CIA operative umm well nothing bloody happens and the information is passed onto The Fixer at the end of the title so what his agenda was and why he did it remains unknown which is annoying.
Reasonable read here only I have enjoyed many of the other titles more than this offering.
