My one-line summation of this book would be Great interesting plot with lots of detail and realistic characters, but it started a little slow and has some large predictability issues in trying to make the attack plausible. (You know there's an attack, it's in the title, that's not a spoiler!)

So. First off, let me say that I did enjoy this book. The overall plot was well conceived, it's clear that plenty of research was done to make everything as realistic as possible, and the end was nicely done. I loved the characters - even the small roles came with just enough background to make you want them to succeed. And they were all completely realistic; they had fears, they made mistakes (even some whoppers!!), they struggled on to do their jobs. It's hard for authors writing these sort of books to not allow their characters to be too over-the-top heroic, able to overcome all obstacles, never wavering, etc. Henrick didn't fall into that trap, and I give him major points for that.

However. It started rather slow. It wasn't that I disliked the first half, but it took me a while to get through, I was more hesitant to pick the book up, there wasn't enough going on to really pull me in. It wasn't until more than halfway in that the pace really picked up. And the big problem: you could see specific things near the beginning of the book from a mile away, which these characters who are supposed to be Secret Service/security detail should never have let them by/not noticed the connections. If you're putting multiple world leaders on one boat with limited security available, do you really let any coincidences slip by unchecked? Not do an excessively thorough check of every single thing that was not on an original plan?? Even if it were to make them late, they'd never let unchecked things on board (and I don't consider this any kind of spoiler because it's blatantly obvious)! I mean come on! I get that Henrick had to "slip one by" them in order to make the entire thing possible, but if I were those guys I'd be ready to throw myself overboard for being so utterly stupid as to let this all happen so obliviously!

Slight SPOILER ALERT
If he'd just had everything transferred in through the laundry like some of the stuff was (which we find out at the end because that part was sufficiently non-obvious!), then it would have been fine. Yes, readers would likely surmise a connection between the new arrivals, the Han sub, and the forthcoming attack, but it'd be far less blatant, and far less suspicious of a thing for Secret Service to "overlook." But no, he had to hide stuff in the new machines [that they would never have let on in the first place w/o a thorough check first, they'd have held off until after the summit!] and twice have the dog interrupted/unable to get near them so they go miraculously unchecked! There's just no excuse for that!
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Anyhow. I was, clearly, irritated with that cheap way of arranging the attack to be able to happen. But regardless of that, I did enjoy the read and I would pick up more by Henrick in the future. ( )