cover image Brute Force

Brute Force

Marc Cameron. Pinnacle, $9.99 mass market (432p) ISBN 978-0-7860-3529-8

In Cameron's uninspired sixth Jericho Quinn novel (after 2015's Day Zero), "warmongering moles" President Hartman Drake and Vice President Lee McKeon have entered the White House after both their predecessors were assassinated. Now, "[e]very day another politician, reporter, or military officer who opposed the new administration in even the most trivial matters found themselves harassed or taken into custody" by Drake and McKeon's Internal Defense Task Force. Quinn, an agent with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, is among those on the run from the IDTF; he's allied with a number of former senior officials, including the CIA director and the secretary of state, aiming to topple the Drake-McKeon regime. Meanwhile, a dangerous new kind of thermobaric bomb that the Chinese have been developing has been stolen. The conceit%E2%80%94that the two people at the top of the executive branch are connected with terrorists%E2%80%94will strain credulity, and Cameron doesn't compensate with either clever plotting or full-blooded characters. Agent: Robin Rue, Writers House (Jan.)