Classic Clancy. An excellent escape into the world of high octane spies and a great thriller! US security is threatened when the Taliban join forces with a Mexican drug cartel. Max Moore, the ex-Seal and current CIA oppo is the only one who can unpick the clues, but can he do it in time? Like other Clancy books, this story links a number of story lines, and pulls everything together for an explosive conclusion...

It is obvious that Tom Clancy had little to do with this and joins the growing list of authors showing contempt to their readers by out-sourcing. But this starts off looking and feeling very much like a Clancy - it's a doorstop of a book (750 pages) and tries hard to be a complex techno-thriller. In essence it is about the drug cartels and terrorists working together and an elite US force trying to bring them down. It lacks the pace and tension of a traditional Clancy along with the blend of politics and on the ground action and ends up being overlong and does not suck you in enough. Far, far too many characters confuse and our tediously flawed hero, Max Moore, jets all over the place with as much angst as he has identities. Maybe in a shorter, tighter, book this might have worked, but it felt too drawn out and as if it was working to a template rather than delivering a good story. Just about deserves two, mainly based on the excessive length and lack of real excitement. But very average and very long.