By the time Special Investigator Vin Cooper arrives at the murder sceneโthe shark-infested waters off the Japanese coastโthereโs little left of the victim to prove that his death wasnโt an accident. Thatโs what the military wants Cooper to believe, but he isnโt buying it. What kind of top secret project could the military be engaged in that would require the services of a foremost marine biologist and a genetic researcher? The ominous answer lies at the end of a trail of โaccidentalโ deaths and presumed terrorist acts that leads Cooper to the ultimate showdownโwith a secret shadow government convinced that its patriotic duty is to kill anyone who opposes it.
From Publishers Weekly
In Rollins's second thriller, Department of Defense Special Agent Vin Cooper, behaving like James Bond on steroids, beds twice as many women, solves three times the cases and takes five times the beatings as 007. The over-the-top adventure needs a reader who can match Cooper's smart-aleck attitude. Mel Foster's measured, carefully enunciated approach produces just the opposite effect, taking the edge off of the humor and spotlighting the book's less-credible action sequences (i.e., Cooper is tossed from a plane without a parachute, is captured and beaten, escapes by donkey and is ready for a new assignment). To his credit, Foster does not stint when it comes to emotional dialogue and handles a range of accents, from Cockney to Pakistani, smoothly and effectively. And his unhurried reading clarifies a complex plot that includes a marine biologist being killed by a shark, a possible skydive suicide of Cooper's pal and the theft of a formula that could destroy all computer life on the planet. A Bantam hardcover (Reviews, Jan. 26). (Mar.)
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Review
โRollins is a forceful writer with an authoritative voice.โโ _Orlando Sentinel
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โExciting . . . Readers will cheer.โโ Publishers Weekly
โNon-stop action . . . superb suspense.โโNelson DeMille
From the Paperback edition.