Black Site

Starred review from December 19, 2011
Former Delta Force commander Fury, author of the nonfiction bestseller Kill Bin Laden, makes his fiction debut with a thriller that crackles with gut-wrenching action and authenticity. Kolt Raynor, a former Delta Force officer disgraced after a botched operation in Pakistan, can barely function as a private security guard because of his drinking. When evidence suggests that some of the men involved in Raynor’s earlier failure are still alive, Raynor gets a chance to redeem himself—by scouting the mountain compound where the men are held captive in Pakistan. The impetuous, arrogant Kolt manages to not only fulfill his mission but also take out superior al-Qaeda and Taliban forces in a rescue effort that could break up a planned terrorist attack headed by Daoud al-Amriki, an American-born al-Qaeda leader. The open ending will leave readers eager to see more of Raynor and the warriors of Delta Force in the sequel. Agent: Scott Miller, Trident Media Group.

February 1, 2012
The Delta Force commander who led the hunt for Bin Laden in Afghanistan immediately after the events of 9/11 pens a thriller set in the world of black ops. Kolt Raynor was the head of a unit in Pakistan when his team was ambushed, leaving him as the sole survivor. Washed up and considered a disgrace, Raynor finds solace in a bottle. Three years later, he is asked by his former commanders to journey back to the site of the tragedy. During the ambush, a helicopter with some of his men crashed, and everyone was considered dead. They actually survived and have been prisoners ever since. Raynor must retrain himself and clean up his act if he is to save his friends and fellow soldiers. The atmosphere and characters feel authentic in this promising debut. The character of Raynor is not a Superman, which gives the tale a shot of much-needed realism. Brad Thor and Vince Flynn fans have a new author to add to their reading lists.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2012
Fury (Kill Bin Laden, 2011), one of the first soldiers sent in pursuit of bin Laden, pens frontline-action fiction. Former Major Kolt Raynor, call-sign Racer, cashiered from Delta Force, is a drunk, fired from a last-resort job as security officer aboard pirate-targeted cargo vessels off Africa's coast. Avoiding psychiatric counseling, Racer is drowning self-condemnation and PTSD in Old Grand-Dad. Always too impetuous for superiors, Racer's gut-wrenching guilt arises from a mistake in judgment, a hard-charging decision that killed three members of his recon team deep in Pakistan's anarchic Federally Administrated Tribal Areas. Worse, Raynor's best friend, Lt. Col. Josh Timble, three more Delta ops and two CIA pilots were shot down attempting to rescue Racer's group and are presumed dead. Three years since the snafu, word has come from not-always-reliable operatives that Timble and the others are alive and imprisoned in a forbidding Khyber region compound. The current Delta Force commander and a retired Ranger colonel, who is head of the private security company Radiance, have planned a recon mission to confirm proof-of-life. With that, Racer is yanked out of the bottle, put through merciless re-training by Delta ops who'd rather not be nursing a disgraced drunk, and then dropped into FATA to suss out the rumor's validity. Fury is retired Delta Force, giving the action a rapid-fire, realistic air as it moves from Peshawar to Dara Adam Khel's infamous weapon's bazaar with chaotic intensity. Racer confirms Timble's POW status. He also uncovers a conspiracy by al-Qaeda, the Taliban, rogue Pakistanis and Turks and a traitorous German to destroy a CIA black site. With sufficient back story and from-the-headlines references, Fury delivers a credible action adventure story. There's minimal character development, and the bad guys are stereotypical, including Daoud al-Amriki, an American jihadist. More action hero than cerebral spy reluctantly wielding an HK416 carbine, Racer is locked and loaded for a series of adventures.

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September 15, 2011

A former Delta Force operator, Kolt Raynor made a bad decision that got his teammates killed or captured. Now he's set to redeem himself by finding the captives, held somewhere in Pakistan's badlands. Instead, he stumbles upon a nasty al-Qaeda plot. Former Delta Force troop commander Fury, the senior ranking military officer at the 2001 Battle of Tora Bora in Afghanistan, wrote the best-selling Kill bin Laden, about his assignment to do just that, so expect authentic detail.

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.