The shooters

Charlie Castillo, the rough-and-ready Delta Force officer, returns with his troubleshooting team to find a missing DEA agent in the latest Presidential Agent thriller. As usual, the novel is heavy on action and tough-guy dialogue and light on subtlety but that's OK because it's what fans of Griffin's many military thrillers have come to expect. They also expect plot twists, and the author doesn't disappoint here. Griffin is a solid, dependable writer who never reaches beyond his grasp, never strays too far from the formula that's proven successful for him so many times in the past. This one delivers the expected goods in the expected way.--Pitt, David Copyright 2007 Booklist

When DEA Special Agent Byron J. Timmons is kidnapped in Asunci?n, Paraguay, at the start of bestseller Griffin's rousing fourth presidential agent novel (after The Hunters), Timmons's grandfather asks his friend, the mayor of Chicago, for help. The mayor passes the request on to the U.S. president, who assigns his personal in-house expert, Lt. Col. C.G. Castillo, to rescue agent Timmons. Castillo is familiar with the territory, having sorted out various terrorist and drug dealer threats in South America in earlier books in the series. Castillo spends a lot of time in meetings and flying around the globe in the course of setting up the big shoot-out. After the brief, long-awaited climax, everyone pats each other on the back and gets ready for the next adventure, which is sure to pick up the loose threads left untied from the just-completed mission. In less accomplished hands, this would be a recipe for boredom, but Griffin pulls it off, leaving satisfied thriller readers hankering for more. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Superagent Charley Castillo is back in this fourth book of Griffin's "Presidential Agent" series (e.g., The Hunters and The Hostage) with another monumental task to accomplish. As chief of the Office of Organizational Analysis (OOA), Charley picks up where he left off in The Hunters, still dealing with the collateral damage caused by the UN food-for-oil scandal. When a DEA agent (with political connections to the highest levels) is kidnapped in Paraguay, the President assigns Charley and his OOA to get Agent Timmons back and dismantle the offending drug organization. Now Charley, against his better judgment and still working without a net, flies among Washington, DC, the American Gulf Coast, Paraguay, Europe, Argentina, and Uruguay in a story that builds slowly but methodically to a big shoot-out. Griffin once again mixes mystery, adventure, and the too often disappointing, to an outsider, internal workings (and politics) of the U.S intelligence and diplomatic communities. Dick Hill offers a flawless reading. While not quite as strong as the other titles in the series, this book is still highly recommended. [Penguin Audio also has a version of The Shooters: 15 CDs. unabridged. 17 hrs. 2008. ISBN 978-0-14-314245-4. $49.95.--Ed.]--Scott R. DiMarco, Mansfield Univ. of Pennsylvania (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.