Wet Work

Mark Hewitt has obviously done his homework–his research is exhaustive in the detail, operations, alliances, betrayals, tradecraft, and history. Laying a modern-day thriller over the top of this is not an easy task, but the author has done an exemplary job. The life of the president, the partisan work of the DNC, secrets in the CIA, and the machinations of other government and para-government organizations clash in an exciting thriller.

Since the days of Stalin, politically based murder has been the Cold War’s dirty little secret. Neither side wants to investigate. Let the Russians kill their defectors, even if it occurs on US soil. Who cares.

A democratic staffer who assembles negative information on Republican opponents develops a conscious, steals information that is both vital and detrimental to Dem election tactics and decides to go public . . . then he gets murdered. DC police could care less.

Duncan Hunter is ex-CIA now DEA. His weapon of choice is a slow low flying nearly silent airplane. Been around since Vietnam, but Hunter has perfected its abilities that he has made into a stealth aircraft. And added some weapons that make him and his plane a serious threat to people who’d do harm to the US. Threats that come from religious fanatics and cartel heads alike. The plane can fire an air-based sniper rifle accurate out to more than a few miles. And a laser than can blind enemies by frying their eyeballs. He has three of these planes (where'd he get all his money?), the necessary ground crew (Bill Jones and Bill Smith), and (from an earlier book) has a daughter who graduated from the Air Force Academy who now uses that stealth plane to fry Mexican poppy fields. Yeah, an alpha family by DNA.

Hunter’s former boss at the CIA is on the way out. Election is coming up and the opposition candidate has a huge lead. He’s thinking somethings afoot somewhere in the Agency. Politics are getting in the way of protecting the country. He asks Hunter to find out what’s going on and who needs to be held accountable (and with a title like Wet Work, you know what ‘accountable’ means). The sitting President is at risk, too. But politics are at play even in the Secret Service.

This book's jacket blurb is interesting. It’ll draw in readers of political thrillers. Like me. The depth of detail around the book’s election season rivals what we are experiencing right now. Book characters are thinly veiled versions of current politicians. That may be a little too close for some. As such, it’ll have a political slant and this one slants to the right. Way to the right.

Politics aside, when you pick up a book at Barnes and Noble, the heft tells you something. Not so with a Kindle. You read and read and read and read and read and the counter at the bottom right corner of the screen barely moves. Unless you know how to convert Kindle location to pages, you don’t know. And this is a beast. Over 600 print pages. Long long long conversations over coffee and fajitas in an out of the way Mexican joint in Texas. Or again in DC. And again, in NYC. Incredibly detailed after action debriefs, yadda, yadda, yadda.

Now I’m of the opinion that if I pick up a book, I owe it to the author to finish it out of respect for the work required. And I did. But, man, this was a chore. Not because it was poorly written or researched. All that is first rate. Without question. First rate. It’s just so dang loooooooooong. I’m betting that at least 20-25% could’ve been cut without any loss to the storyline. This is Hewitt's fifth Duncan Hunter book. Wonder it they are all this big.

Be forewarned. This is good, but it is a commitment.