Date first published	April 1993
ISBN Number	0 55309 441 6
Page Count	534 h/b
h/b= hardback : p/b= paperback

Storyline

Amaya Bajaratt is a woman with a mission. A terrorist who is out to revenge the death of her husband by destroying the great Satan - The President of the United States. Through a mixture of cunning and guile she neatly sidesteps those out to stop her.

Leading the hunt is an ex-naval intelligence officer by the name of Tyrell Hawthorne. Retired after becoming sick and tired of the intelligence games (his wife was murdered in Amsterdam) he is reluctantly brought back into the fold by MI6. Following his recruitment death and destruction follow, and Tyrell's mission also becomes one of revenge following the death of two of his closest friends.

Following leads, he picks up the scent of Amaya, and finds to his horror that she is a former lover, however love will not stop them from killing each other if they meet.

What Tyrell doesn't realise is that a secret organisation based in America is helping Amaya, for they yearn the chaos that will arise from the Presidents death. Can Tyrell work out who is friend and who is enemy before it is too late?

Review

The story could be set now, rather than 1993 when it was first published. It just goes to show that things never change - just the groups who cause the carnage.

I like this book, bought also loathe parts of it as well. So what did I like and what didn't?

Let's get the bad bits out of the way first. First off is the way Amaya ingratiate herself and that of Nicolo into American society. I know that much of American society is fairly shallow, but would they readily open their arms for an alleged Corsican orphan, who may have a large fortune? I think not.

Secondly the way the characters interact with each other whether friend or foe, it gets irritating after a while. Tyrell is especially guilty of this telling those trying to help to shut up. I suppose it's supposed to show fatigue, or frustration - it really frustrated me! I also found that the way Stevens and Tyrell interacted would not have worked. A certain amount of enmity would certainly be present within the relationship, but not to the extent where one orders the other around purely on the pretext getting the job done.

Finally the language. Some of the dialogue between the characters, is pure waffle, leads the story nowhere and is just boring. The use of a foreign phrase is one that has also started to creep in. This is a technique that Tom Clancy is constantly using. Put in a foreign phrase, to show he knows a foreign language, and to show that the person is clearly foreign. It could be used once, and then the literal translation used in the future. Whether American readers would think it clever i don't know, but I find it totally over the top.

So what did I like. Well the basic premise is sound, a single female terrorist, with unlimited funds, aims to assassinate the President. To do this she becomes an Italian Countess, with a young boy who will become very wealthy, and wants to gain support in America. Where it gets let down, is that Amaya is too up front, especially when strange deaths start to follow her around. Amaya would not want anything to attract attention, as it would lead to some digging, whoever she claimed to be.

The Scorpios are also well thought out. Unlike some of the other secret organisations that Ludlum has created there has never been one quite like this one. Scorpio One is terminated, and change in direction is made by the new Scorpio one, only for him to be killed because some of the other Scorpios dislike the change in direction. The whole organisation heads into turmoil after the executive board is destroyed. Other parts of the organisation carry on.

Hawthorne is also a good character. A man that has seen the under belly of life, and has moved on living in the Caribbean sailing, and running his own small business. His enrolment is particularly strange - drugged and kidnapped in a bar, and to my mind I wouldn't be that co-operative. However it forces Hawthorne to re-examine his life. He meets a small airforce team, who join him, after a friend is killed by the enemy.

The story is one of revenge - on all sides. Amaya, for the family murdered in front of her, and her own rape. Hawthorne for the deaths of his friends from the waterfront, and Cathy and Jackson, it is payback for their lost friend.

Much of the book is very well done, the fight scenes, and action sequences are well handled, as is the general tracking of Amaya. No finding them by accident. When they do have an accidental meeting, the story has already set up why the two parties should be at one location. The story is I felt let down in places by the dialogue, and the other padding moments between the action sequence, which is why it gets only 3½ out of five.

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