KCR: Dead Shot (sniper, war, novel)

Dead Shot is a very good "shooter" novel, with a great premise, and a great showdown at the end. My only problem is it is too much of a spy thriller, with the bad guy moving almost at will, little if any tension until when the "hero" gets on his tail.

Premise: Juba sniper, a true Al Qaeda assassin, managed to assassinate an informant in the middle of allied Green Zone in Iraq, in order to silence him from revealing Saddam's WMD cache location. The now-declared-dead Kyle Swanson, part of Task Force Trident, is asked to hunt down this guy, since clearly someone knows enough to access that WMD, and someone will be accessing it. Soon, a horrific attack in London (that made the bus bombings look like a picnic) proved him right, and Swanson tracked Juba down to a rural village in Iraq, where sniper meets sniper in an ultimate showdown, shot to shot...

The problem with this novel is the bad guys are just too good at their job. SWAT team at the door? Booby trap. More SWAT? Blow up the whole block. There was no "close calls". There is no tension... the bad guys always get away. EVERYTHING falls within their plan, EXCEPT the hero. This is often a problem when the plotting is a bit too clever. Why would the good guys be the only ones making mistakes? Still, the duel is neat, though not that satisfying, as there are two more novels after this in the series.

Rating: worth reading at least once

Related articles

• KCR: Kill Zone (sniper, war, novel) (crankyreviews.blogspot.com)

KCR: Kill Zone (sniper, war, novel)

Sgt. Jack Coughlin is the best shooter in Iraq, and now, he has turned to novel writing. The problem is this conspiracy stuff doesn't quite work, and the plot later makes even less sense. It's too contrived.

Premise: the top general in Iraq was kidnapped. He was scheduled to testify against a congressional act to privatize a lot of the military (i.e. mercenaries). A rescue mission sent in met with severe mishap... the chopper crashed. One sniper survive the crash: gunnery sergeant Kyle Swanson. He had received a secret order from the Whitehouse... Terminate the general if he cannot be rescued. Swanson, however, rescues the general, with help of a highly advanced sniper scope called Excaliber. However, there are a few secrets in that scope as well. There is also a conspiracy up to silence Swanson, and anybody related to him by the backer of mercenary bill. Can Swanson accomplish his mission, and expose the conspiracy?

Frankly, the conspiracy is so ****ing large it boggles the mind. We're talking about conspiracy that has mercenary units that is perfectly willing to shoot down military planes, all around the US AND the world, kidnap and assassinate VIPs in and out of the US, connections in various other Middle East countries, and more. It's **** crazy. Why would a company with this much power bother with a simple bill through US congress?

Sort of worth reading, but not worth buying.

Related articles

• KCR: Shooter (autobiography, sniper, non-fiction, war) (crankyreviews.blogspot.com)
• KCR: A Deeper Blue, Paladin of Shadows #5 (novel, terrorism, hero) (crankyreviews.blogspot.com)

KCR: Shooter (autobiography, sniper, non-fiction, war)

Cover via AmazonShooter, by Sgt. Jack Coughlin, is an autobiography by the top shooter in Iraq, with 60+ confirmed kills. He was there when they pulled down the Saddam statue that ended up on TV. He was in Somalia, and everywhere else there is a need for a good marine.

This book is not as jingoistic as one may suspect, but another warrior's memoir. The man is plain-spoken, and Donald A Davis helped polished up the prose quite a bit, having previously published several history books and crime books. The officer Casey Kuhlman also contributed a lot of the facts and recollections for overall perspective.

The book is about the conditions of the job, and the comraderie and trust between warriors, not about the tally of the kills and such. This also serves as a first-person account of Battle for Baghdad. Most Iraqis are glad to see the Americans topple Saddam... at least at first.

If you like the warrior memoirs, you need to pick this one up.

Rating: get it