Book Review: Ghost

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Ghost     Amazon US HC Amazon Canada HC
John Ringo
Class/Genre:   Military   Mystery   Terrorists   Adult Content   Thriller   Dark Romance
Series: Paladin of Shadows # 1
Baen, Oct 2995, $25.00

After fifteen years as a Navy SEAL special ops agent, Michael “Ghost” Harmon retires because his body can no longer handle the pressure following degenerative damage to at least half of his major joints. However, his adjustment to civilian life proves difficult as he attends the University of Georgia as an undergrad. It is not the assignments as he used to eighteen hour days; it is the inactivity to release his growing rage. So to give him something to do, the Ghost uses his skill of blending in to stealthily stalk pretty coeds and fantasize having sex with them.

Ghost follows a beautiful blonde who suddenly is kidnapped by men driving a van. He follows them to a deserted warehouse where he learns of an odious terrorist plot to abduct and assault American women. Ghost attacks the men, killing most of the enemy and trails the survivors and their prisoners to Hartsfield where he stows on a plane heading to Syria before continuing elsewhere like Amsterdam. Wherever the trail takes him Ghost is a WMD causing havoc and death as he begins to understand the strange, but dangerous conspiracy that threatens the West.

Ghost is a weird combination of hero and antihero as he tries to break up the conspiracy as only he can, but also is a dark soul abusing women as he does in a Bosnian brothel or just stalking the as he does on the Athens campus. Fans will be shocked by his actions as heroes are supposed to be ethical John Wayne types, but in this case he is amoral. Not for everyone, John Ringo provides a powerful techno-thriller that reminds the audience that some of our heroic “trained” killers have a dark tendency to violence.

Harriet Klausner

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

Please Note: Books reviewed are usually provided by the publisher, author, or an agent. Reviewers usually get to keep the book.