This naval thriller has a slightly unbelievable plot, where France has been approached by a prince from Saudi Arabia who has had enough of the prolific spending of the current royal family and has decided that a coup is necessary to bring back a more restrained order to his country.

France agrees to help with special forces and subs to carry out the coup. There is devastation of oil industry which has huge ramifications for the global economy and energy supply. The Americans are not best please that they have been stitched up, and set about trying to right the wrongs.

The books starts of very slowly, I don't mind a little of setting the scene, but this took a while. When the action does start it isn't bad, but it does come across as stilted and not totally believable. The actions that America takes against France would probably start WWIII, so I cannot imagine that ever happening. It was a swift read though. ( )

Another great military thriller from Patrick Robinson. Whilst the character of Ray Kerman is getting a little past his used by date thankfully he only plays a (somewhat) minor role within this novel passing by at critical points to assist in part of the operation in Saudi Arabia.

The crisis landing at the feet of the United States this time around is a coup in Saudi Arabia backed by France which sees world oil supplies reduced by the sum total of Saudi Arabia's output.

There's a considerable amount of detail (and destruction) in the book, for some it may pass into being too detailed however I find the detail in Patrick Robinson's novels to be beneficial and entertaining. For example some folk may have little interest in the procedures involved in placing mines on an oil refinery.

Overall, good entertaining read. You don't need to have read the prior books to enjoy it, but you'll be missing out on the character development if you do skip them. ( )

This book needs a good editor to cut out about 200 pages. It's too long, too repetitive and over detailed in places. The detail doesn't add to the story but drags it out and is distracting.

Even though I can totally put aside reality when reading, the plot to this was rather poorly structured. There was no logic to the premise and the outcome was so predictable.

Not as good as his earlier books. ( )