Black Site by Dalton Fury
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

‘Black Site’ strives to cover every aspect of the military mission(s) that the main character endeavors upon and does so impressively. Seems little there is left out, despite the knowledge that not all can be revealed without veering into the reality of American military operations that the author claims to know. Despite the complexity of all that happens int the book, it is written in a clear fashion making so much easier to digest.

This is still another entry in the overflowing literary area of espionage by former military-turned authors. This one is much like the others, especially the recent variety that deal with middle east issues. In fact, the writing is much like many of them.Possible too many of them. Turns out Mark Greaney was involved with writing this. Greaney is also writing his own series along with continuing Clancy’s Jack Ryan series. Is Greaney also writing this series? It’s known that Dalton Fury is a pen name and this book reminds me of Greaney’s The Gray Man.

However, ‘Black Site’ reminds me of many of the other new espionage novels being spit out today. All written well and full of action. I’m not finding a real writing style in the majority of these books. So many read as if all were written by the same person. If not for different publishers, I’d wonder if this genre wasn’t the opposite of the William Johnstone Clan set of books all being handled by ghost writers. In this case are many being handle by a few writers using different names and lots of assistants? I’ll stop these ponderings.

Despite all the above, this is a very good book, though it also lacks style. Very readable, exciting and well worth the expense.

Bottom line: I recommend this book.

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The Faithful Spy by Alex Berenson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

‘The Faithful Spy’ is a fantastic thriller of terrorism in the U.S. The various sides are well covered with the viewpoints of each well laid out. Author Berenson has so well laid out the Muslim view that I could see people who are not Muslim take the religion in consideration. The view of being a radical Muslim can have a reading start to sympathize with the terrorists drive.

Same true for the efforts of the C.I.A. as various characters navigate through the bureaucratic maze to get a job done. The hero is very well illustrated as one straddling two worlds at times not knowing for sure which one he’s firmly in.

I really like the location descriptions. Whether US or Middle East, the author gives a great feeling of place.

At nearly 500 pages you’d think this is one I would point to as needing editing. Not in this case. There is some extraneous stuff here and there, but this still adds up to a mean and lean thriller that will have any reader much more aware of the world around themselves after reading.

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e_BouThe Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a very enthralling and involved story of an amnesiac who finds out he is an assassin and wants to know why. Author Robert Ludlum created a very thorough story that, though a little wordy in dialogue, is otherwise concise in a long narrative way.

Unlike so many of today’s super spies who are out to kill, the main character, Jason Bourne, turns pacifist as an amnesiac. Though there is violence, it is far less than in current similar themed novels by Vince Flynn or Brad Thor. This is more of a study of a person trying to find themselves.

I love the series by folks like Flynn because they are so much fun to read. But, in light of Ludlum, they are missing the important parts of the story that makes the Ludlum book so much better in it’s writing and plotting.

About the movie: It might as well been named the Schwartz Identity. It’s a separate world than the one Ludlum created and made for the financial purposes of the film industry.

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