Gauntlet is a debut novel by former lawyer Richard Aaron, to be released on March 2nd. I read it quickly, in one sitting, as I just had to know what was going to happen...The cast of characters is quite large. There's the TTIC (Terrorist Threat Integration Center) staff and their not-so-bright director - the standout here is Hamilton Turbee, the super-rich autistic computer genius. The CIA operative Richard Lawrence, who's hooked on painkillers and mourning the apparent death of his adopted brother. The mastermind behind the terrorists, who puts the plot into motion. And the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) who stumble onto the chaos while tracking drug dealers' shipments south across the border.
With all of these people involved, I'm not surprised this is a large book. The story proceeds at a good pace, with only a few sections that got repetitive. And while I liked the background on Youssef (the mastermind), some of it was just a tad implausible. I mean, skinny pale little 13-year-old from the tribal villages of Afghanistan figures out how to process opium into heroin by eavesdropping on his elders? Hmm...
In any case, as mentioned before, the story was engrossing, and there were no obvious plot holes. ** SPOILER ALERT ** in the next sentence!! Except that all the extra references told you way before you get to the end, that they don't quite manage to stop the attack. I didn't need to know that with 48 pages to go...** SPOILER ALERT ** end.
The sequel has already been named (Counterplay), and I will definitely pick it up to see where this story goes from here.
Title: Gauntlet
Author: Richard Aaron
ISBN-10: 0-98167688X
ISBN-13: 978-0-9816768-8-3
Hardcover: 488 pages
Publisher: Glass House Press, 2009
1 comments:
Hi Drey
Love your blog, I nominated it for a literary blog award. Stop by and pick it up.
Thanks,
Dottie :)
Post a Comment
have a thought to share? I love comments!