By Order of the President (Presidential Agent Series #1) » (Reprint)

Fellow bestselling author Tom Clancy is right on target when he describes W.E.B. Griffin -- world renowned for his military and police novels filled with vivid detail and dead-on accuracy -- as "a storyteller in the grand tradition, probably the best man around for describing the military community."

When a leased Boeing 727 is violently hijacked from Angola and flown to parts unknown, the President turns to an outsider—Major Carlos Guillermo Castillo—for answers. A pilot, West Point graduate, and veteran of Desert Storm, Castillo has a sharp eye for the facts—and the truth behind them. In Africa, he is helped and hindered by unexpected allies and ruthless enemies, and begins to untangle a plot of horrific dimensions—a plot that, unless Castillo acts quickly, will end very, very badly.

The New York Times - Andrew Santella

Part of Griffin's appeal is his dogged attention to detail. He has bothered to learn the lifting capacity of the external cargo hook on a MH-53J ''Pave Low III'' helicopter, and is determined to pass the information along, even if it requires a footnote. And even the most jargon-laden exchanges between officers -- the kind of gritty talk best delivered with a well-chewed stub of cigar between the teeth -- are filled with camaraderie and go down easily.