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Fiction
- Mystery
- Women's Issues
Title: Agent of Influence Author: Russell Hamilton Rating:  Very Good!
Publisher: iUniverse Web Page: iuniverse.com Publisher's E-mail: russellhamilton1@gmail.com Reviewed by: M.K.Turner |
 
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Agent of Influence is subtitled "A Thriller" and the book lives up to the hype. Russell Hamilton has written as tightly plotted an international spy story as you are going to find in this genre. And genre it is with the usual gimmicks--exotic locations, beautiful women, terrifying terrorists--only, surprisingly, the clichés are so well incorporated into the action that each twist opens up--well, a new twist. You know what's going on, but not exactly what's going on. Another happy surprise is that the CIA is really the "good guys" and the terrorists are truly insidious, as patient as they are clever, and now they have their agent of influence in a position to destroy the USA once and for all. Alex Bryce, a fumbling new CIA recruit, plays counterpoint to brilliant and beautiful Anna Starks, a field agent extraordinaire. By injecting the bumbling Bryce and a number of equally inept heavies into the cast of professional agents (and the agents on both sides seem pretty bumbling themselves at times) Hamilton is able to throw enough confusion into the terrorists' carefully timed sequence of events to bring success or failure down to the very last moment. If the characters and dialogue are somewhat stilted at times, this is offset by Hamilton's easy familiarity with places. He seems as comfortable writing about Cairo as Lexington, Kentucky and there is a great scene from the 1973 Secretariat win at the Derby that is worth the price of admission. BONUS: If you are into Muslim conspiracy theories, this is a particularly timely book.
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