Pretty good book. Exciting stuff in it. Classic Dale Brown thriller about USA's war on drugs. I read/listened the abridged version and the length was just about right. The book contains a lot of characters and (abridged) it doesn't develop any of them very well--a trade off from lengthy discussion. And, I suppose it's a boy book: lots of fun explosions and much technical data. ( )

At 691 pages this isn't a short book, however despite being essentially 700 pages it really doesn't feel that long.

The book covers basically a 3 year period of a new American Government organisation called the 'Border Security Force'(BCF) whose job (amongst other things) is drug interdiction, this is primarly the aspect the story revolves around. On one side you have the 'good' guys wanting to stop the drugs coming in, and the other the 'bad' (or in some cases evil would be a better description) guys wanting to smuggle the drugs into the US/Caribbean.

It's a pretty unique story with a lot of focus on the struggles between the two parties as they attempt to do the actual smuggling. The main aircraft used by the BCF is the V-22 Osprey featured on the book cover, the name 'Hammerheads' refers to the nickname of the BCF.

There are some pretty intense Customs raids & numerous flying sequences which are both authentic and gripping.

NB: Whilst this book does have Patrick McLanahan in it and falls between Flight of the Old Dog & Night of the Hawk chronologically it is not part of the Patrick McLanahan series. ( )

My first Dan Brown, will read more. I enjoyed it very much being old Navy most all of it is possible and is real. It did get a little technical and boring in places but overall very good.

From Publishers Weekly
When the narcotics cartel hires renegade Cubans flying jet fighters to protect large shipments, enter the Hammerheads, a new paramilitary border security force. PW called this techno-thriller a "smooth blend of plot, action and gadgetry. . . a reader's delight from first page to last, a model of the genre."
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition