by Vince Flynn, 1999, Pocket Books, a Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

This is a typical political thriller, but it has a few flaws.  First of all, the constant references to model names and numbers of various pieces of technical military paraphernalia, although it might please a reader who is member of a vigilante group or militia, drives me nuts.  Secondly, the author spent a huge number of pages building up to the finale which caused the book to drag a bit (the finale, by the way, was as expected).  Finally, while I have to give credit to the author for predicting a catastrophic act of terrorism on American soil pre-911, he fell into the same trap that George Bush did when he assumed that Saddam Hussein would be behind it all.  Oops!  (I guess I wouldn’t have had the same criticism on that last item if I had read the book ten years ago.)

Not bad, but could have been better.