Book Review: Whirlwind

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Whirlwind     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Joseph R. Garber
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Espionage
HarperCollins, Sep 2004, $24.95, 320 pp.

Security failed at the New Mexico base when two generators exploded. The blasts enable Russian spy Irina Kolodenkova to obtain a top secret disc and an even higher classified block of the deadliest weapon ever made, Whirlwind. Irina flees for her country’s San Francisco embassy so that the seventy pounds weapon of mass destruction can be sent to Moscow.

Sam, the National Security Advisor knows that this incident could hurt national security, but worse derail his plans to run for the Oval office. He recruits his best dirty jobs person, former CIA Agent fiftyish widower Charlie McKenzie to “save the country” by recovering the disc and the block; use any means including murder to stop Irina from delivering the weapon in exchange for $20 million. Charlie rejects the patriotic cry because he spent two years in prison as the sacrificial lamb protecting the administration especially his bosses from taking falls from grace, but grabs the loot. Charlie catches up to Irina, but Sam’s second agent Johan Schmidt catches up with both of them with the intent of killing the duo and retrieving the disk and the block.

This is an exciting action-packed espionage thriller that focuses on a series of chases in which Charlie is either the pursuer or the pursued, which makes him seem more like an athletic late twenties stud. Except for Charlie, whose ironic wit makes him human albeit super spy, much of the rest of the key players seem cartoonist. Still fans who take delight in a wild spy vs. spy vs. spy etc. (Chinese and corporation too) adventure will want top join Charlie on his quest.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner