Dimercurio has penned another winner. This time the world faces a potential war in south America and the usual suspects are renting out their battle fleet to the highest bidder. In order to keep the American Navy at Bay, a submarine creeps into waters outside Norfolk and sinks cruise ship carrying most of the Navy's top brass. This is a crippling and devastating blow to the level of readiness.

There are many charcters you have grown used to in previous books and some new ones as well. The sea battles are realistic as Dimercurio moves about twenty years into the future and speculates the type of weaponry available to attack subs: Plasma warheads (a small, focused nuclear weapon, Vortex undersea missles (a super cavitating munition) and a light imaging system (much better than conventional sonar).

He also does something I like to do myself. He brings back a bad guy from the first book and sends him after Patch Pacino's Navy.

Overall a great, great read.

I stopped around page 69. I'm sure some people can stomach this kind of drivel, but this has to be one of the worst books I have seen in a couple of years.

I didn't care for the characters. I am bored to tears when everything seems to have a racial overtone (aren't we suppose to be a color blind society?).

This one is heading for the garage sale pile,

I generally like Coonts, and I have grown to know Jake Grafton. This book was a departure. I think there were too many gizmo, wizbang, gee-whiz kind of toys in this novel. The characters never really had to stretch themselves to accomplish anything, because the technology did it all for them.

The other thing I kept having trouble with was the character of Charlie. If he was a Marine Sniper in Vietnam and the book is set in about 2020, then Charlie would be pushing 70+ years. It just didn't hold together.

However, if you walk away from the need for a realistic, techno thriller and look at the book as Sci Fi, well it isn't too bad. The gadgets are kind of kool when you look at it this way, although, the characters need some work.

The always entertaining DeMille takes us to a fictional army base called Fort Hadley. We meet up Paul Brenner (who appears in a couple of other books) and of course, he gets assigned to the murder of Ann Campbell - the General's Daughter.

Was it a rape and murder? A tryst that got out of hand? Something a little more serious? Or was General's recruiting poster daughter a bit angry with mommy and daddy? Maybe all of the above, and maybe not. Oh, there are a lot of things going on at Fort Hadley and none of them very military.

Brenner dives into the mess, finding he can trust no one and help from Washington is tainted at best.

Maybe not the best thing DeMille has ever written, but a straight forward, entertaining read. Certainly, I would rank Cathedral, By the Rivers of Babylon, Up Country and Plum Island among his best works.

What do you do when an American astronaut is murdered aboard the International Space Station? If you're Nasa, you go find an ex-astronaut turned drunken, burnt out cop and ship him up on the next shuttle mission to figure out who the bad guy is.

Around page 100, I really had my doubts about this book. I didn't find the main character "Edge" Reynolds particularily engaging, and I feared another "Nasa" book would get bogged down in acronym-laced prose.

When the murder is "solved" around page 200 and there is a good chunk of the book left to read, I decided to stick with it. Without creating a spoiler, I found the solution to the mystery rather ingenius. It was the kind of stuff the X-files had going for it in the the later seasons.

Considering how fragile the technology really is, I think this book's shuttle and space station are far more durable than real life, but it makes for good read on the beach.

This book should have 10 stars!

Not since LeCarre's books about George Smiley have I read an espionage novel with the scope that Littell writes. There is a tremendous amount of research that went into writing this book as historical characters are deftly woven with fictional ones into a credible mosaic that takes the reader fom the mean days of Post War Berlin to the Moscow Putsch in 1991.

We see James Angelton pursue the American Mole in the light of PhilBy, Burgess and MacLean's treachery. We are treated to the moments during the Bay of Pigs and the Hngarian crisis. We see how presidential ambition and mismanagement impact the people on the frontlines.

This is a 900 pages book that leaves you wanting more!

Little has indeed raised the bar for the espionage novel, and very few will meet it.

This is an ABSOLUTE MUST READ!

Okay, let's get the bad stuff out of the way. I fully agree with everyone who complains about the lack of character development.

That said, we have a very intriguing concept here. It has been called Japan Inc. and the concept that business is war is taken to its logical extreme in High Flight. How separate is the Japanese government from entrenched business interests? And could there be a government behind the government that could engineer an economic attack on the United States in order to expand Japan's control over the Pacific Rim.

This is a very complex plot that involves baiting the Russians to strike back and the Seventh Fleet to intervene on behalf of the Japanese. Into this mix, a covert group attempts to gain control of America's domestic airline production industry and the plot involves sabotage of civilian airliners. There is a lot going on in this book, but it is well written and it continues to draw you on to the next page. Considering it is almost 900 pages long, this is a page turner that deserves to be read.

Whether you agree or disagree witht eh book's premise, it is worth considering.

Terminal Run finds the United States Battle Network compromised by a covert group of hackers. This eliminates the advantage of real time intel.

Washington fears that the USS Snarc (a robot submarine) has been hijacked as well and sends the Piranha to sink her.

If that isn't bad enough, Britain, India and Red China are squaring up for a show down in the Indian Ocean.

This is a fast paced, well researched and well written story. Those of you familiar with the series will see Mike Pacino's son in action and for those of us who still believe carrier battle groups are more than targets, Dimercurio provides carrier based action as well.

This a great read. I read most of it on a car trip on my way to Norfolk. Highly recommended.

Ed Stovic, a Navy pilot on patrol in the Med is confronted with a situation when two Algerian MiG-25s try to bounce an Hawkeye Intel plane. A missile is accidently fired and the Americans respond in kind downing one MiG and sending the other running for Momma.

Now the brother of the dead Algerian pilot wants revenge and he goes gunning for Stovic. It turns out Stovic gets a spot on the elite Blue Anegls flight team and the ticked off Algerian (with a little help from his friends) decides the best way to avenge his brother is to shoot down the entire Blue Angel team during the prestigous Paris Air Show.

Kent Rathman (Rat) is a one time SEAL, now a quasi private/government agent is assigned to keep Stovic in one piece and get the Algerians.

The story is analogous to an old west gunfight at noon. The flying scenes and action segments are obviously where Huston is most comfortable. There is an entire subplot taking place between the National Security Advisor and the SECDEF. Personally, I would have fired the NSA. While there is a need for executive level decisions for the plot, this entire sub-plot detracted rather than added to the story.

A good read from an up and coming writer.

Okay, I'll admit I'm not sure what the title has to do with anything, but it is a legal thriller and these things tend to have juries every so often.

Paul Mandriani and Harry Hines take on Dr. Crone, a brilliant geneticist. He's described as a man with a Cray computer between his ears. This is a book where the answer is sitting before you the entire read, but you have to follow the clues.

Crone is accused of killing a beautiful, black female colleague. So does this have something to do with his research stretching back 25 years earlier about racial graying? Maybe.

Aaron Tash is his number 2 man, who has the personality of gum on the bottom of shoe. He meets with Crone in the county lock up and they discuss DNA codes, or maybe it is something more sinister.

Through out, this is Mandriani's patient manner as he discovers one lie after another - most of the coming from his client.

Harry Hinds, Mandriani's partner, continues to quip and wisecrack his way through the story. There is a tight symmetry that really works for the book.

A couple of things to keep in mind: Figure out the motive and you'll discover the murderer, and follow Mandriani's advice, "Lawyer's like to keep you looking at one thing while they do another."

Novelists like to do the same thing. We are a sneaky bunch.