Would you expect your garden-variety thriller -- one filled with the nuances of the fairly secretive FBI Hostage Rescue Team, plus a Washington senator accused of murder -- to end with five pages of people standing around talking? It wasn't quite an "it was all a dream" ending, but it wasn't much better. Too bad, as this tale was pretty gripping for the first 200-some pages (even if parts read like a Robb Report magazine) before fizzling out at the end.

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LT Haiku:

When FBI does
evil things for good reasons,
should we disapprove? ( )

In full disclosure, I have a bit of a hard time being objective about this book because I knew the author. But I think you all know I am not a big believer in true objective opinions when it comes to books anyway.

Set in today's world, the story follows a Senator, an undercover CIA operative, and an FBI agent as they manuever through the modern day world of terror investigations. All of them enter from a different angle in a story of a telecommunications mogul who is introducing an encrypted telephone at prices for the every day customer. The introduction of the phone allows completely secure communications which cannot be intercepted by any government agency. The CIA agent's cover is compromised, the Senator is framed for a murder, and the FBI agent is hoodwinked into a seemingly unauthorized rendition of a group of terrorists in Yemen.

Now I don't require absolute accuracy in all my legal thrillers and action/spy tales. Indeed, much of the fun of them is their existence in a fantastic world not tied to the rules and obstacles of 'the real' (Matrix speak). But, I do have my limits and sometimes put down books with extreme fanciful stories and details. I came to this book with an expectation of some accuracy as the author is a former FBI agent and sniper. One of his other titles is a memoir of his days with the FBI and the FBI's elite Hostage Rescue Team. (A good read with first person accounts of Waco and Ruby Ridge from a guy who was there for both.) What I found was a strange mix. In some ways, Whitcomb's details are painfully accurate. In other passages, Whitcomb's story stretches my capability to willingly suspend disbelief and enjoy the story. I think what Whitcomb was reaching for here was a balance of accuracy in the small, mundane details with an exciting story not bound by the same need for accuracy. Mostly, he reaches that goal.

For a first novel, this is pretty well written. Whitcomb's prose was easy to slip into but not overtly simple. The characters were more complete than a lot of cardboard cutout thriller characters. The FBI agent, while abandoning his familty to do his duty, actually considers and meditates on the consequences to his family and the damage to his relationship with his wife. Unfortunately, the story is so complex that Whitcomb sometimes shortcuts these passages in formulaic ways. The books primary weakness is that the story is so complex that the characters and story development sometimes suffers; Whitcomb almost feels rushed sometimes to get in the next twist but still feels compelled to get the twist in with style.

I liked this book. For those who like this genre of book, I would recommend spending the day or two it will take you to read. For those with a super critical eye or those who don't enjoy turning off 'the real', this probably isn't for you.

3 1/2 bones ( )

A Novel with the Ring of Reality

A new recruit to the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team thought he understood what he was joining. Instead, he finds himself plunged deep into an Alice in Wonderland World of lack operations.

In Black, Christopher Whitcomb, a fifteen-year veteran of the FBI and a Hostage Rescue Team member, has written a troubling novel about the shadowy world in which this recruit unexpectedly finds himself. It is a world dominated by black-box technology, gorgeous females with hidden agendas and mercenaries with shifting loyalties.

Whitcomb infuses current sense of reality into the genre. It is obvious he has experienced the interplay between intelligence organizations and international corporations. He also includes timely references to the war on Iraq and Al-Qaeda.

The novel is an easy read. Were it not for several instances of poor editing (he confuses Lincoln Center in New York with the Kennedy Center in Washington) it novel would rate five stars. ( )