Book Review: Gauntlet by Richard Aaron

Gauntlet by Richard Aaron

A Novel of International intrigue

Pages: 504
Published: 2009
Thriller

RICHARD AARON lives in a cold, northwestern city with his wife, four children, and various dogs and cats. He has a university degree in mathematics and a masters in law. Neither has anything to do with his burgeoning career as a writer. He worked in the real world for two decades before realizing that he was actually meant to be a writer. Gauntlet was produced soon thereafter. He is working on the sequel to Gauntlet and it is soon completed.

Visit Richard at his website

About the Book:
A terrorist threat is looming; an attack that would dwarf any other. This time, the government knows it's coming, but doesn't know where… or how.

From a stunning new voice in international intrigue comes a dramatic story of high-stakes missions, treachery, honor, an unlikely hero, and the ultimate terrorist attack.

Six hundred sixty tons of Semtex is detonated in a massive explosion in Libya – the last of a deadly stockpile. The operation seems to have gone smoothly, but within minutes of the explosion, CIA agent Richard Lawrence discovers that one shipment of the explosive was hijacked en route to the destruction point. Days later, a glory-seeking “Emir” broadcasts to the world that he is planning a massive terrorist strike against a major U.S. landmark. And he gives a timeline of one month.

Now a desperate chase covers four continents, as the men bent on attacking the United States use every weapon at their disposal to evade the American authorities. Time and again they prove willing to destroy anything – and anyone – standing in their way. But Hamilton Turbee, an autistic computer mastermind at the secretive and newly created TTIC agency, discovers a way to follow their tracks. His flawed genius gives the nation its only chance at stopping the attack… if the American leadership will listen. As the enemies near their destination, and an attack becomes imminent, it is up to the TTIC team, still without a true leader, to stop the massive explosion that could destroy the lives of millions.

As the world watches in horror, the President asks TTIC two questions.

Where will the attack be?

And can it be stopped?


The Review:
It's a high intense thriller, think 24, Body of Lies for movies and tv-series like that. As for books, it's harder since I have seen them around but I have stuck in my own corner of books I read, and these have always felt very manly and testosterone filled, which is strange since I do like to watch movies like it.

I decided to show you something intense next to give a feel of the book.

“They smashed his right leg to pieces. They tore the tibia completely from its surrounding flesh and tissue, and discarded it. It was not with the rest of the body. They smashed most of the bones in his feet to pieces with some kind of blunt instrument, probably a hammer. They ruptured both testicles, through blunt force trauma. The forensic scientists who examined him think this was done through repeated, incredibly vicious blows to the groin. He had many internal injuries, some occasioned by blunt force, others by surgical instruments.”


Yousseff Said al-Sabbhan, an Afghan drug smuggler who has worked his way up in the world in one of the main characters in this book. We get to see his life through back flashes, and it's an interesting story about a young boy who sees a chance and takes it. He is one of the big pieces in the puzzle, he and the Emir is working together on a plan that will cause damages in the states. Against him stands, Terrorist Threat Integration Center, or TTIC for short. Different characters who all work together trying to find out where the attack will take place, because after the semtex goes missing it's just a matter of time.

I find it interesting that one of the main characters at TTIC is an autistic mathematician, who is a genius with computers. He sees things that the others can’t see, and I like that he has made him a hero in this book. Hamilton Turbee is someone who stands out together with Yousseff. Good versus evil in a world that is about to get darker.

This is a book for people who like thrillers, adventure and action. Between the flashbacks we get the hunt for answers, will the semtex be used by terrorists, and if so then where? Messages from the Emir are aired, and the clock is ticking away. Can they stop it in time? They are all working hard, and some are taken and tortured. It's not a book that jumps over details; instead it will give you what would happen.

It is a well-written book and the bad part, oh how it leaves me hanging. Yes it does have an ending, but what will happen next? And there are certain characters that I wonder about. It’s a cliffhanger without really being a cliffhanger. It ties up loose endings but leaves room for much more. Evil is not that easily stopped, and that is the good thing about this novel. It doesn’t have a happy ending with good has won again, no it gives you reality. But who knows what will happen in books to come.

Negative parts, well it can feel very movie like at times.


received a copy for a review