I received the four SEAL Team Six books Hunt the Wolf, Hunt the Falcon, Hunt the Scorpion, Hunt the Jackal on the same day and I binge read them one after the other. Other reviewers will tell you the details of the plots, but I want to write about the series as a whole.

Although I tried to read them in order, the e-editions I received did not clearly indicate the sequence, even on the OTHER BOOKS BY list. I took a guess and read them Falcon (3), Scorpion(2), Wolf (1), Jackal (4). It didn't matter much, though, there are some timelines of injuries, deaths, and traumas that run across the series but the books stand alone pretty well. The quality of the text is not even across the whole, however, with Jackal being more choppy than the others. I wondered if one of the writing partners put less effort into that one.

The world of these books is not like the one I inhabit, and I don't say that because I am not a SEAL running all over the world chasing bad guys. I need to sleep, I need to eat, and when I sprain an ankle or break a bone, it takes weeks and months to heal. Not these guys. Thomas Crocker tells us every book how many days a year he is on assignment and away from his family - 200, 260, 300 days. These guys don't have circadian rhythms, I guess. Jet lag, no worry. Sleep deprivation, no worry. Let's go. Let's go. Gunshot wounds, broken bones, sprains, torture, emotional trauma, all the standard ordeals of action thrillers, no worry. We are SEALS! We bounce out of the hospital onto a plane to the next assignment. It's exhausting just to read. And what's with the diet sodas? I would have thought these guys would need to pack calories to maintain this schedule. They even skip a meal now and again. Never knew soldiers to do that.

The texts are charmingly exact about technology and technological jargon, telling us the complete names of many pieces of equipment and operations protocols, and carefully adding the abbreviation in parentheses. As the Squad Leader, Crocker barks seemingly redundant and trivial orders to his guys, even though he runs them through the same drills every day. Not sure how this works in the military, in the business world he would get in trouble for talking down to his staff.

These are fun books but I imagine that my capacity would be about 6, especially if the writing quality remains at the lower level of book 4. Also, since they are written in supposed real time, the authors run the risk of getting ahead of current events.

I received review copies of Hunt the Wolf, Hunt the Falcon, Hunt the Scorpion, Hunt the Jackal by Don Man and Ralph Pezzullo (Mulholland Books) through NetGalley.com. ( )

Book source ~ NetGalley

Chief Warrant Officer, Thomas Crocker of SEAL Team Six and his team are on the way for some mountain climbing training in Islamabad when they are given a mission. Intel puts a known terrorist at an address in Karachi, Pakistan. They are to go in, locate, and bring Abu Rasul Zaman out alive. Except the mission goes sideways and after the smoke clears they’re told Zaman isn’ty one of the bodies left behind. He’s escaped. Mission failure. It eats at Crocker as he and his team are dismissed to go do their climb. When he meets up with a Norwegian diplomat on the mountain things take a turn that’s unexpected and now the clock is ticking. Will Crocker and his men finish the mission after all?

Full of action this is definitely a thrill ride with a side of mystery from beginning to end. However, it lags a bit in spots, it’s a tad repetitive in areas, and if you love descriptions of weapons then you’ll definitely love this story. Because each and every weapon is listed each and every time they gear up. In addition, I am not really a fan of Crocker. He seems to be more than a touch obsessive-compulsive about working out and pushing himself – even to the point of hurting himself. Extreme and more than a little alarming. His personality is also a tiny bit sketchy although he gets the job done, I can say that about him. Eat your heart out, John McClane. There are some POV problems, not many but enough to pull me out of the story. Otherwise, this is an adrenaline-loving, white hat vs black hat, save the girl, tale from beginning to end. ( )

I received this book for the Early Reviewers program and after a few pages I determined it wasn't going to be a book for me. However, my husband found it on the shelf and asked if he could read it and loved it so much that we have since purchased the rest of the series. He describes them as "awesome and full of action from the first page".

Thomas Crocker is the leader of SEAL Team Six. Their mission: assault a compound run by Abu Rasul Zaman and capture him alive, if possible. It's a simple mission, and they complete it with relative ease, but after the dust is settled and SEAL Team Six moves on to their next task Crocker isn't satisfied with the results. When he investigates Zaman further he discovers he is connected to much darker things than he is already accused of.

I don't hate the book. It's definitely exciting if you like shootouts and firefights, but it's a little bit over-the-top at times, and there were some aspects of the writing that bothered me. For example, Thomas Crocker has an interesting habit of passing out during boring parts of the story so he can wake up right before the next action sequence. There was also an utterly pointless mountain climbing scene that added nothing to the plot, and the ending fight scene felt a little bit out of sequence. I won't spoil anything, but one scene could easily have been moved forward a dozen page or so and it would have been a lot more satisfying.

So, Hunt the Wolf, it's alright. It's not exactly fine literature, and it definitely has a few problems, but it had its moments. Like a bad action movie, I suppose. ( )

Enjoyable book. While some parts seemed a bit farfetched, it was written by a 30 year veteran of the Seals. I have known Seals so perhaps it's not so farfetched after all (not because I have known Seals but because of their stories I have heard). It is a fast paced thriller with lots of action. While love of families was made obvious, any romance in this book was barely noticed.

One thing I enjoyed aside from the actual story line was the quotes that prefaced each paragraph (and some within the dialogue). They were always appropriate and several I hope to remember. ( )