I thought I had read all of the Clancy novels, but I somehow missed this one. It is #2 in the series of 2 novels featuring John Clark. #1 in this series is “Without Remorse” and I don’t believe I have read that one either. So I guess I will try to find it.
But I won’t try very hard.
I am generally a fan of Clancy’s books. They are well-written and have always kept my attention. But I had a hard time finishing this one. It is 900 pages. I started it while on the NCL2 cruise back in April. It is now July. More than 2 months to slog through it. It has plenty of action – and death – but not many real surprises. Clark was in charge of an elite anti-terrorist squad which, in the first half of the book, is tasked with resolving three terrorist plots. They were interesting, but it came as no surprise that they resolved each swiftly and with almost no civilian or squad casualties (except for one young girl who was dying anyway). The fourth terrorist attack was on the “Rainbow” squad itself. This, too, was repelled, but with several squad casualties.
Throughout these incidents ran a narrative of activities going on at the Horizon Corp, a huge pharmaceutical company headed by John Brightling, a brilliant billionaire who was funding most of these early attacks, for reasons not obvious to anyone – including the ex-KGB agent that he hired to arrange them. After the failed Rainbow attack the agent decided to get out of the game. Brightling moved him to a Horizon Corp facility in Kansas. He then learns the reason behind the attacks and it turns out to be a monstrous plot to kill millions.
So Rainbow was called upon to save the world.
Interesting, but hardly surprising. I won’t spoil anything if I tell you that the world still exists.
I would have enjoyed this book more if these interesting-but-not-surprising adventures of Rainbow could have been told in 600 pages rather than 900.
5 out of 10.