Hunt the Dragon

March 7, 2016
In Mann and Pezzullo’s intermittently exciting sixth SEAL Team Six thriller (after 2015’s Hunt the Fox), Chief Warrant Officer Thomas Michael Crocker sets out to rescue James Ryan Dawkins, an aerospace engineer kidnapped and forced to develop a North Korean long-range ICBM capable of striking the United States. Crocker must also track a source of near-perfect counterfeit U.S. currency. Insider jargon and an alphabet soup of SIGs, AKs, NVGs, and SDVs bring the military aspects ably to life, but off-mission scenes ring flat. The authors highlight the brutality of the North Korean government, though the titular villain, “Honored General” Chou Jang Hee, is barely a presence. Crocker’s globe-trotting investigation of state-sponsored counterfeiting feels like make-work before the final mission unfolds. It’s only when the rescue goes wrong, as rescues will, and Crocker and his surviving team must avoid dangerous North Korean forces as they make their way toward the border that the novel becomes consistently gripping. Agent: Heather Mitchell, Gelfman Schneider Literary.

March 15, 2016
Mann, a former Navy SEAL, and Pezzullo (SEAL Team Six: Hunt the Fox, 2015, etc.) send their fictional SEAL, Chief Warrant Officer Thomas Crocker, to a North Korean island to pull the pin on Kim Jong-Un's nuclear plans. This time the authors gives nuance and depth to Crocker's character, offering back story on how his wife, Holly, couldn't tolerate SEAL life and left, his angst over his daughter's growing independence, and his father's fragile health. The action begins with Crocker seconded to the Secret Service to help in a counterfeit case. North Korea's "Office 39" employs "optical variable inks" to print U.S. currency, adding another way besides illicit drugs and arms trading to shore up their economy. That means a quick sojourn to Las Vegas, where beaucoup funny money is appearing. There, Crocker serendipitously meets a possible new love interest, dancer and single mom Cyndi. Then Crocker and his Black Cell teammates (otherwise mostly behind the scenes in this story) saddle up to intercept a North Korean freighter carrying counterfeit bills. Most of the team stays stateside as Crocker makes a foray along China's North Korean border. With that, the pace turns electric, as Crocker rides aircraft carriers, helicopters, and even a SEAL Delivery Vehicle, a minisubmarine, to the Pansong Archipelago. It's vital to rescue Jim Dawkins, an American engineer kidnapped in Switzerland to work on North Korea's "missile guidance set control." As usual, the narrative is filled with acronyms and weapon and product references, but the conclusion is satisfying, with Crocker going entertainingly superhuman. Formulaic, but for the Tom Clancy/Dale Brown genre fan, Mann and Pezzullo provide enough excitement to while away a weekend.

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May 1, 2016
The latest in the SEAL Team Six series is another action-packed and timely adventure. The leader of the team, Thomas Crocker, is having personal problems, but it hasn't affected his skills or loyalty to his team. Scientist James Dawkins gives a talk at a conference and then disappears. His wife is frantic, but her pleas for help are ignored. Dawkins has been kidnapped by the North Koreans, who are demanding that he fine-tune that country's nuclear-weapons system. While he contemplates his options, Crocker stumbles upon a bizarre conspiracy involving men disguising themselves as Chinese diplomats. The action never lets up for a second, and the SEAL team continues to give military-thriller fans everything they want.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)