Eyes of the Hammer

July 1, 1991
When Colombia secretly requests U.S. aid against the drug cartel, a Special Forces A-Team becomes the ``eyes'' guiding gunships and helicopters--the ``hammer''--against jungle cocaine-processing labs. Then treachery leaves four Green Berets dead and one in the hands of the ``Ring Man,'' deadliest of the drug lords. Special Forces warrant officer Riley and CIA agent Kate Westland are sent in to kill the Ring Man and rescue the prisoner. Their slim chances sink to near-zero when Washington pulls the plug on the mission. But before his people are abandoned, a veteran Special Forces colonel still has a few cards to play. In his first novel (launching a series), former Green Beret Mayer successfully establishes the nuanced differences among U.S. Special Operations units: rangers, Delta Force and Special Forces. But his story line jumps unconvincingly from covert infiltration mission to secret agent-type assassination to commando raid. Descriptions of the tools of unconventional warfare are static, and characters, with the exception of agent Westland, never achieve full dimension.