It is not often that I will stay awake until 3:00 in the morning to finish a book, but I could not sleep without learning how the many threads of Jeff Edwards' thriller, "The Seventh Angel," would weave themselves together into a coherent fabric of denouement. Edwards offers a spine-chilling action thriller in the style of Tom Clancy. He demonstrates enough technical proficiency to give himself "street cred," but not so much to get in the way of the galloping narrative and character development.
As a former Navy Chief, Edwards clearly has some strongly help political beliefs, but these passions help to drive the story rather than become off-putting or didactic. The writing is crisp - sometimes even "literary" - and such that I was held in its thrall until the final paragraph.
This book is near perfect. My only quibble is with the author's falling into the all-too-common trap of misusing the word "disinterested" as if it meant "not interested." Technically, the word should only be used to denote "Not influenced by considerations of personal advantage." Otherwise, he handles the language and the drama with the same technical proficiency that the crew of the USS Towers (DDG-103) handles their state-of-the-art weaponry.
The novel's premise is that a rogue Russian Governor of Kamchatka steals nuclear warhead-equipped ICBMs and holds the world's superpowers hostage to nuclear blackmail. Given the state of decay of the former Soviet military arsenal, the premise is frighteningly plausible.
I look forward to reading more of Edwards' offerings.
Enjoy!
Al
No comments:
Post a Comment