Assured Response » (Reprint)

Joe Weber was a carrier-qualified fighter-attack-trained pilot for the United States Marine Corps. After his release from active duty, Weber flew commercially until 1989. His unique inside knowledge and flair for explosive drama have earned him praise from today’s masters of military fiction. His books have appeared on the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, and Publishers Weekly bestseller lists. Weber lives near Pensacola, Florida. Visit the author online at www.JoeWeberNovels.com or e-mail him at JoeWeberNovels@cox.net.


From the Hardcover edition.

New threats require new weapons. New villains require new heroes.

The time is the near future. Osama Bin Laden has been succeeded by a generation of even deadlier terrorists who will stop at nothing in their fanatical quest to destroy the United States. Conventional security is no longer enough. Former military pilots Scott Dalton and Jackie Sullivan are the government’s newest weapons—operatives so secret that their very existence is denied by the officials who hired them. Armed with the most up-to-date technology and equipment, their mission is to prevent a plan of nuclear holocaust that will begin at the Canadian border and explode in the centers of American power.

They have their work cut out for them.

Foremost among their foes are Saeed Shayhidi, a billionaire Iranian “businessman” and mass murderer, far more sophisticated and sadistic than Bin Laden himself; Khaliq Farkas, a mysterious and ever-elusive terrorist, bearing a barbaric grudge; and Zheng-Yen Tsung, the powerful Chinese official who may be the mastermind behind it all.

From a shocking sarin attack on a legendary ocean liner to the stalking of chemical plants and oil refineries by aircraft filled with explosives, no attack is too insidious, no symbol of strength and freedom immune. For Dalton and Sullivan, their expertise has never been more necessary—their bravery never more needed—than in a world where unrepentant evil requires an assured response.


From the Hardcover edition.

Publishers Weekly

Super top-secret spy duo Scott Dalton and Jackie Sullivan return to battle Islamic terrorists in bestseller Weber's (Primary Target) latest techno-thriller. Charged with capturing the key lieutenant-and his suitcase-sized nuclear weapons-of a terrorist organization that's begun a deadly assault on the U.S., the pair spends much of the novel flying around in an assortment of meticulously described aircraft as attacks on American symbolic and strategic targets mount. President Cord Macklin orders a series of counterattacks, at first setting his sights on Saeed Shayhidi, the multibillionaire shipping magnate-cum-terrorist arch-villain. When that doesn't halt the strikes on America, Macklin aggressively broadens his war on terrorism, promising, "No peace talks, no compromises, no settlements, no bullshit-period!" This post-9/11 rage might prove cathartic for some readers, but it doesn't do much for Weber's plot. The "assured" quality of attack and response drains the book of its suspense, and the violence level rises predictably and inexorably. The one truly surprising element in the novel is an international border dispute that follows a deeply unlikely chain of events. Dalton and Sullivan continue to speak like robots (She: "We are going to Hawaii as soon as possible, right?" He: "No argument from me, but responsibility is the nature of our business"), and they also seem to watch much of the book's action on Fox News. The plot threads that are left hanging-to be picked up in the next installment, presumably-give the book a frustratingly half-finished feel. (Jan.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.