Top Hook

TOP HOOK

It’s springtime in Newport and Alan Craik and his wife, Rose Siciliano, are on top of the world. She’s headed for astronaut training; he’s going into an espionage school. Parents, pilots, lovers, and loyal navy officers through and through, the husband-and-wife team are eager to take the next step. Then it all comes crashing down.

In a Virginia suburb of D.C., a senior CIA man has committed a series of clandestine acts that have led him into the most dangerous place he has ever been. Now George Shreed’s dark secret is in danger--and a woman is demanding a million dollars in exchange for her silence. Shreed’s next desperate move is to find someone to take the blame for the information he himself leaked. The fall guy will be a woman: Rose Siciliano.

Suddenly, an investigation targets Rose, and, by association, her husband, Alan. And as a circle of treachery tightens around them, events race out of anyone’s control. In command of an airborne unit on the USS Thomas Jefferson in Trieste, Alan is contacted by the same woman who is blackmailing Shreed. Soon he is being pulled into a vortex of spies and counterspies while a series of stunning escalations take his high-tech airborne attachment--and the world--to the brink of war.

In the most dangerous region on earth, Alan Craik is crashing through forbidden airspace to find a spy, code-named “Top Hook,” whose act of betrayal is more complex--and chilling--than anyone can guess.

From the deafening roar of jet fighters launching off an aircraft carrier to nerve-shattering clandestine meetings in Turkey, North Africa, and Pakistan, Top Hook is a relentless turbocharged ride--and the best work yet from the most original writer in military adventure today.

From the Hardcover edition.

The Alan Craik novels have earned GORDON KENT electrifying praise for their breakneck pace and raw emotion, as well as for some of the most remarkable heroes—and villains—in fiction today. Now U.S. Navy Officer Craik is back in action, all because one man, fueled by anger, ambition, and pain, has ignited an explosive chain of events that threatens not only two good careers, but world peace itself....

TOP HOOK

It’s springtime in Newport and Alan Craik and his wife, Rose Siciliano, are on top of the world. She’s headed for astronaut training; he’s going into an espionage school. Parents, pilots, lovers, and loyal navy officers through and through, the husband-and-wife team are eager to take the next step. Then it all comes crashing down.

In a Virginia suburb of D.C., a senior CIA man has committed a series of clandestine acts that have led him into the most dangerous place he has ever been. Now George Shreed’s dark secret is in danger—and a woman is demanding a million dollars in exchange for her silence. Shreed’s next desperate move is to find someone to take the blame for the information he himself leaked. The fall guy will be a woman: Rose Siciliano.

Suddenly, an investigation targets Rose, and, by association, her husband, Alan. And as a circle of treachery tightens around them, events race out of anyone’s control. In command of an airborne unit on the USS Thomas Jefferson in Trieste, Alan is contacted by the same woman who is blackmailing Shreed. Soon he is being pulled into a vortex of spies and counterspies while a series of stunning escalations take his high-tech airborne attachment—and the world—to the brink of war.

In the most dangerous region on earth, Alan Craik is crashing through forbidden airspace to find a spy, code-named “Top Hook,” whose act of betrayal is more complex—and chilling—than anyone can guess.

From the deafening roar of jet fighters launching off an aircraft carrier to nerve-shattering clandestine meetings in Turkey, North Africa, and Pakistan, Top Hook is a relentless turbocharged ride—and the best work yet from the most original writer in military adventure today.

Publishers Weekly

This is the third Alan Craik and Rose Siciliano novel by Kent (pseudonym of a father-son writing team) and its falls into a predictable pattern of military-techno action, minus some of the usual suspense. With the villain revealed in the first chapter, the drama relies on the ensuing chase around the world, led by married U.S. Navy pilots Rose and Alan. As the novel begins, Rose is on a fast-track assignment to the astronaut program, and Alan is on his way to a coveted spook assignment with the CIA, but they find their idyllic careers derailed when a highly placed traitor in the CIA fingers them as spies to cover up his own actions. Rose and Alan are bewildered and angry, but the stink of treason is on them. Aided by some loyal and highly qualified friends, cops, FBI agents, naval officers and techno-specialists, they struggle against time, bureaucracy and a shrewd mole. Meanwhile, the mole is jarred into premature action by the blackmail threats of a mysterious woman who knows his secret and is resourceful enough to evade the squads of Serb hitmen sent to kill her. The skullduggery is set against the backdrop of a war between Pakistan and India and a confrontation between China and the U.S., and loaded with gunfights, sex, some snappy dialogue and the aerial hijinks of supersonic jet fighters. The high testosterone doses satisfy, but best is the complex and clever web of motive Kent weaves for the mole, which is just about the only surprise in this otherwise ordinary thriller. (June 4) Forecast: Kent's first two novels Rules of Engagement and Peacemakerwere dynamos, but this one only treads water. Sales should remain steady, but readers may begin slipping away if Kent doesn't adjust the level of suspense to match his consistently excellent action. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

GORDON KENT is the pseudonym of a father and son writing team, who both have extensive personal experience in the U.S. Navy and are former intelligence officers. The son earned his Observer Wings in S-3 Vikings, and left active duty in 1999. They share interests in history, fishing, and Africa, where they have spent considerable time, in and out of military service. Both live in the United States, where they are working on a fourth Alan Craik novel.