No one has ever accused Richard Marcinko -- aka Rogue WarriorοΏ½ -- of being an altar boy, but in the latest installment of his bestselling series, Demo Dick finds himself darkening the aisles of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, tracking a group of terrorists who want to turn the world's largest Catholic church into the world's biggest Roman candle.
A trip to Italy for Dick Marcinko turns into more than pasta and gondola rides. Nothing and no one is sacred as Marcinko sprays irreverent asides, targeting everything from antiterror wannabes to the nuns who taught him in parochial school. Called "the real deal" by Vince Flynn, the bestselling author of Memorial Day, Marcinko entertains, informs, and even finds time to genuflect in his new book.
Visiting a NATO conference in Rome, Demo Dick blisters bureaucratic ears with a speech about Europe's vulnerabilities and the need to get serious about terrorism. He caps off his talk with an impromptu demonstration of the threat, unmasking a plot to kill the conferees seconds before it begins -- and just in time to play volleyball with a live hand grenade. The action ratchets up from there as the former SEAL commander is shanghaied to Sicily to help investigate the attempted theft of nukes from a U.S. base. Is the Mafia involved? Or is this the work of Saladin, a shadowy extremist trying to step into bin Laden's shoes? A high body count lends credence to both theories, but before Demo Dick can untangle the plot, his firm is hired to track down "shrinkage" in a courier operation in Asia. Since said shrinkage involves data and currency worth hundreds of millions of dollars, Demo Dick anticipates a Rogue-sized finder's fee. But he soon discovers the job is a trap. Lured to a cave filled with outrageously hungry tigers in the Thailand jungle, Demo Dick sucks cat breath before being saved by the beautiful if prickly Trace Dahlgren and veteran Rogue sideman Al "Doc" Tremblay. Marcinko has only escaped the frying pan for the fire; he rides a hijacked jet back to Italy, where Saladin plans to wrap up the plot's loose ends in a bonfire at the center of the Eternal City.
In Holy Terror, Marcinko mixes his trademark wit and wisdom with nonstop action in a romp across Europe and Asia.
**
From Publishers Weekly
Marcinko and DeFelice deliver another high-octane entry in the long-running Rogue Warrior series (Vengeance, etc.), starring a fictional Dick Marcinko, who battles and wisecracks his way through the world's bad guys. At a NATO conference in Vatican City, "Demo Dick," in his role as CEO of the Red Cell International security firm, delivers a get-serious-about-terrorism speech. Distracted by a waiter at the back of the room about to lob a grenade into the assembled dignitaries, Dick interrupts his remarks to nail the guy with a single pistol shot through the forehead. Shortly thereafter, Dick is caught up in a running battle with a dozen submachine gun"firing terrorists (minions of the shadowy Arab warrior known as Saladin) who are trying to seize St. Paul's Cathedral. The action"also featuring female Delta Force fighter Trace Dahlgren"catapults to Sicily, Cairo, Shanghai and the Thailand jungle, continuing almost nonstop to the final climax back in Rome. Once again, Marcinko and DeFelice's iconoclastic hero takes no prisoners while kicking terrorist butt in this breezy techno-thriller. (July)
Copyright οΏ½ Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
The Rogue Warrior's second gig with his new coauthor (erstwhile SEALs commander Marcinko is his own hero) is a gripping thriller involving a conspiracy reaching to the highest (or lowest) levels of the Roman Catholic Church, which Marcinko gets to deal with after embarrassing high-ranking NATO officials by pointing out the sloppiness of their antiterrorism measures. Sent into discreet exile in Italy, Marcinko starts building a picture of the emerging menace and tracks it to Thailand, where he faces a lady and a cageful of tigers, from which another lady, lethal but willing (the sort Dickie always seems to find in his chain of command), rescues him. By then, the RW team has assembled for the final showdown with the bad guys on the Vatican's front steps. The usual felicitous, fun RW combo of fast action, high-tech weapons, and some real insights into counterterrorist tactics. Roland Green
Copyright οΏ½ American Library Association. All rights reserved