The Outlaws

November 15, 2010
In Griffin and Butterworth's long and exceedingly detailed sixth presidential agent thriller (after Black Ops), the U.S. president has ordered Lt. Col. Carlos "Charley" Castillo to disband his secret organization, the Office of Organizational Analysis, and to "fall off the face of the earth." When the president dies of a ruptured aorta, Charley elects instead to reorganize his outfit. He soon becomes entangled in intrigue involving several barrels of virulent biological weaponry and a demand from Vladimir Putin to return the two Russian spies who defected in Black Ops. The new U.S. president, who hates Charley's guts, wants to turn him over to Putin along with the two defectors. Charley and his intrepid gang engage in meticulous planning, fill in the backstory, banter among themselves, and fly around in exotic planes. Series fans who love these characters will find the novel fulfilling; newcomers and those expecting a big payoff will be disappointed.

December 1, 2010
Charlie Castillo is going through a bit of a professional shake-up. His top-secret government unit, the mildly named Office of Organizational Analysis, has been disbanded. Charlie and his team have been expelled from government. And the new president (taking over after the former president dropped dead unexpectedly) is distinctly antagonistic toward Charlie and the work he did for the government (something about all those bodies he left behind). It seems like Charlie is down and out, but when several kilograms of Congo-Xa very nasty, fatal bioweapon that Charlie supposedly destroyedshow up in the U.S., Castillo and his former colleagues race to find out who sent the stuff and what they intend to do with the rest of it. Oh, and the Russians are after Charlie; so is the American government but for (mostly) different reasons. Some action-hungry readers might find the book a bit dialogue-heavy, but fans of Griffins military thrillers will be eager to have a go at his latest.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)