BLACK OPS: A Presidential Agent Novel
W. E. B. Griffin
Jove
Political Thriller
Hardcover: 9780399155178
Paperback: 9780515147391
W.E.B. Griffin’s pen runs fast and furious with the newest novel in his Presidential Agent series, BLACK OPS. Readers familiar with these books will cheer Delta Force Lieutenant Colonel Charley Castillo’s swaggering actions in an undercover operation. Castillo owns a European newspaper corporation based in Germany. Dining on Christmas Day in a Virginia safehouse, he receives word that a reporter for his paper has been murdered. Then an Austrian couple working for the CIA is found strangled in a Vienna park. Two additional assassination attempts made on key political figures are uncovered that evening. Castillo’s prior activity to expose an “oil-for-food” plot has made him numerous enemies. Known for his “shotgun-style” bravado, the colorful Ops leader had left a trail of carnage and dead bodies from a number of foreign countries, including Russia.
Now, Castillo jets the newspaper’s co-owner and relative to Germany to attend the reporter’s funeral. There, he is given a note stating that he, Billy Kocian and Otto Goerner would be assassination targets. The “oil-for-food” scandal has brought the vipers out of the woodwork. Castillo’s dilemma is to identify the secret organization ordering the kills.
Prior to their deaths, the Austrian CIA operatives known as the Kuhls indicated that two Russian agents wanted to defect to the U.S. The CIA agents in charge of that area had not made contact with them yet. So it is probable that Russian intelligence is responsible for the Kuhls’ murders, to teach the U.S. a lesson in meddling.
An unwitting Castillo travels by train to the funeral site, along with Kocian and their kennel of family dogs. In the dining car, Castillo notices four people at a table and meets one of the men’s look with a cool stare. “He looks older than his passport photo…” Castillo thinks. “It’s him.”
Castillo addresses the man as Tom Barlow and meets his wife, daughter and sister. He offers to discuss a business opportunity in private, speaking fluently with Barlow and his sister in Hungarian and Russian. The two are Russian spies, both colonels in the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service. With the Kuhls murdered, they become leery of their own agency and the CIA, believing themselves to be at risk from both. They solicit Castillo to fly them to Argentina, where they hope to dissolve into the populace.
Our flamboyant hero finds himself in the middle of a stewpot, a target of foreign assassins and the object of the CIA’s disdain when he interferes with the agents’ defection. Enter Ambassador Montvale, a confidant to the President who believes that Castillo answers to him for all actions. To ensure that Montvale remains pacified, Castillo keeps him in the loop of “need-to-know” information he deems necessary. However, Montvale blasts Castillo with all his political cannons for interference in the Russian/CIA affair. His career appears to have ended, as he is being discharged in disgrace for psychological deficiencies and “over the top” action. He evades the authorities pursuing him with aid from his loyal entourage, those who have worked hard for him in missions for the President. With Montvale, the FBI and CIA nipping at his heels, he maneuvers his crew to carry out what may be their final mission.
Griffin documents the actions taken by Castillo with extensive background information, much of which describes earlier clandestine ventures. In BLACK OPS, Castillo meets his match, intellectually and sexually, when his affair with Svetlana, the female Russian spy, becomes a reality. The reader wonders, nearly to its conclusion, if the relationship is for real. Griffin refers to the lady spy in terms both playful and serious. “Her Charley” bears the jocular banter from his group for her possessive attentions. Religious faith, or the lack of it, takes a small portion of Griffin’s stage.
My only criticism of BLACK OPS is Griffin’s tendency to over-explain the history of an operation whenever a new character enters the arena. Interesting but indulgent theorizing about the SVR’s centuries-old background may be overdone, but BLACK OPS will carry Griffin’s followers to the conclusion with anticipation about Castillo’s future in the secret operations venue. Nobody but Griffin knows if Castillo will continue as the President’s man. We anxiously await the next novel in this exceptional series.
--- Reviewed by Judy Gigstad
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