I'm a huge fan of Detective, Spy, Ex-Military Hero type books, and really wanted to like this book because it was referred to me by a friend. However, it was one of the cheesiest books I've ever read. The characters are so transparent and artificial with one corny line after another. I couldn't help but think I was watching a tv show from the 80's that was cancelled after one uneventful season. The plot was pretty good, but again the description of the characters and the voice the author gave to each character was so completely lame and fake that it almost seemed as though the author was trying to write a spoof. I was really looking forward to starting another cool book series (like the Mitch Rapp - Vince Flynn; or Jon Smith - Covert One novels), but this will be the first and last Joe Pike book I ever read.