Rating: 
Summary: High Tech Summer Read
Review: A US backed spy plane explodes over the Soviet Union. The Russian president thinks the only way to preserve his country is to drift away from democracy and fall back on old faithful communism. The President decides to send in an NSA sponsored investigation team to ensure that the sophisticated spy plane was completely incinerated in the crash and that none of her crew has fallen into the hands of the Russians.
Welcome to the world of Deep Black. The book continues with the character of Charlie Dean who i believe was intro'd in the techno-thriller collection COMBAT, go read it. I liked the cinematic characters of Charlie, Lia, and Tommy Karr who was one cool spy, and think that nearly every male reader of this type of genre imagines himself to be.
The back story involving William Reubens head of Deep Black caught up in an imagninative murder at a relatives house doesn't really go anywhere, but the main story involving our heroes was intriguing filled with tough guy (and girl) dialogue, cool gadgets, and some old school Cold War intrigue, and a hint of romance. Its not perfect, but an ideal read while sitting in the sun on vacation. I am not very familiar with either author's work, but i will be looking more of their works in the near future. Have a fun summer.
Rating: 
Summary: Fun Read
Review: Change of pace for Coonts, starting what looks like a new series. Mixes action on a couple of fronts.
Rating:
Summary: terrific techno thriller
Review: Charles Dean pays a surprise visit to his friend Dr. James Kegan only to find the body of a young Asiatic male lying dead in his home and his buddy nowhere to be found. Dr. Kegan has worked with viruses and bacteria that could be made into weapons so a concerned Charles calls Desk Three, the super high tech covert force. The director is sufficiently worried so he sends Charlie to a scientific conference that Dr. Keegan was supposed to attend.Once there he is kidnapped and sent to Austria where some terrorists demand that he hand over the antidote. It seems Charlie's friend developed a disease that resembles rat-bite fever that is resistant to penicillin. A second team is sent to Thailand where Dr. Kegan was studying plants indigenous to the area. The weapon has been sold to two countries that could use it as a weapon against the U.S. They must destroy the weapons that are in the hands of the terrorists and find an antidote before the disease gets loose in the general population. Stephen Coonts and Jim De Felice have created a techno thriller that starts off fast and by the end of the book is moving at the speed of light. Although there is plenty of action with agents using high-tech gadgets, the major question that permeates the whole book is why did Dr. Kegan, a good man by all accords, create this weapon and where is he holed up. This mystery within a thriller is a prime reason that Stephen Coonts always has his reader's coming back for the next book he writes. Harriet Klausner
Rating: 
Summary: Ridiculous......just ridiculous
Review: Come on.....NSA guard ninjas? By chapter 3, I started looking for something else to read. The dialogue is trash and the characters are B-movie quality. Don't waste your time. I gave it a "1" because "0" wasn't an option......
Rating:
Summary: DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY
Review: I BOUGHT THIS BOOK IN SEARCH OF STEPHAN COONTS, BUT I LEARNED HE HAS LEFT THE BUILDING! I HAD TO FLAT GIVE UP HALF WAY THROUGH! IT WAS TRITE, VAPID, AND JUST PLAIN BORING. TRYING TOO HARD AT TECH AND CHARACTERLESS CHARACTERS COMBINE FOR A REAL SNOOZER. IF I COULD RETURN FOR A REFUND I WOULD.
Rating: 
Summary: Fine literature it's not, but not the worst read either
Review: I compare this series favorably with the "Tom Clancy" Op Center series... granted that is not sayng very much. I am not sure who actually wrote this book, but would not be surprised if it were ghost written... In general I sort of liked the characters at least by the end of the book. A light, enjoyable read if read in the spirit in which it was written, although I admit the first time I tried to read it, I put it down after the first few paragraphs. In this genre, I have suffered through far worse, this actually was ok.
Rating:
Summary: Fine literature it's not, but not the worst read either
Review: I compare this series favorably with the "Tom Clancy" Op Center series... granted that is not sayng very much. I am not sure who actually wrote this book, but would not be surprised if it were ghost written... In general I sort of liked the characters at least by the end of the book. A light, enjoyable read if read in the spirit in which it was written, although I admit the first time I tried to read it, I put it down after the first few paragraphs. In this genre, I have suffered through far worse, this actually was ok.
Rating:
Summary: Not the best
Review: I found Deep Black rather disjointed and thus hard to follow. The high-tech gadgets were interesting but the story lacked the depth a good story usually has. I lost interest in the book but skimmed it to the end and feel I did not lose much by doing that. I expect more of Coonts (or books with his name on them). Read "Cuba" intead of this.
Rating:
Summary: Sci Fi techno thriller
Review: I generally like Coonts, and I have grown to know Jake Grafton. This book was a departure. I think there were too many gizmo, wizbang, gee-whiz kind of toys in this novel. The characters never really had to stretch themselves to accomplish anything, because the technology did it all for them. The other thing I kept having trouble with was the character of Charlie. If he was a Marine Sniper in Vietnam and the book is set in about 2020, then Charlie would be pushing 70+ years. It just didn't hold together. However, if you walk away from the need for a realistic, techno thriller and look at the book as Sci Fi, well it isn't too bad. The gadgets are kind of kool when you look at it this way, although, the characters need some work.
Rating:
Summary: Boring, confusing
Review: I got this book from the library, am halfway through it, and I give up. I came over here to see what others thought, if maybe I was missing something, but it appears I'm not alone.
Usually I'll force myself to finish a book to give the author a chance. Not this one. I feel no connection to the characters and I'm having trouble keeping track of who's who. We start out with a murder and a missing person, and halfway through the book it appears nothing has been done to solve the initial case; instead we're investigating empty warehouses and castles with a side trip to Thailand and a kidnapping in between.
I'm finding myself reading pages over again to see if I missed something but sure can't find what it was...
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