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Joshua's Hammer (Kirk McGarvey, #8)

David Hagberg

Why we're reading this: One of the first thrillers to focus on Al-Quaeda. McGarvey breaks the rule on not negotiating with terror…more
[close] One of the first thrillers to focus on Al-Quaeda. McGarvey breaks the rule on not negotiating with terrorists and meets with Osama Bin Laden to make him give up a nuke he has. Unfortunately, that goes to waste with an air strike and Usama decides to get even with a plot that two other books published after this one copied.

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Sep 04, 2013 Samuel rated it liked it

YOU WON'T NEED A BIGGER BOAT.

Pop quiz. What is the most popular deployment method for a nuclear device owned by terrorists in spy fiction? Is is a plane? A truck? No. The most popular method is via boat. Several reasons, ranging from the number of boats out at sea, to the complete elimination of the element of surprise for law enforcement to get the drop on whatever extremist is trying to sail to their doom make it a popular plausible choice. I know of three books which use the same boat deploy YOU WON'T NEED A BIGGER BOAT.

Pop quiz. What is the most popular deployment method for a nuclear device owned by terrorists in spy fiction? Is is a plane? A truck? No. The most popular method is via boat. Several reasons, ranging from the number of boats out at sea, to the complete elimination of the element of surprise for law enforcement to get the drop on whatever extremist is trying to sail to their doom make it a popular plausible choice. I know of three books which use the same boat deployment strategy. They are Independence Day by Ben Coes, Memorial Day by Vince Flynn and Joshua's Hammer, which I shall be reviewing here. Written by David Hagberg, the poor man's Tom Clancy who specializes in "espionage pulp fiction", it has the earliest use of the boat strategy and is set in the days when counter-terrorism was still in its infancy, not to mention one of the first appearances by Osama Bin Laden in fiction. Now to the review, how far will good guys and bad guys go in the name of their families?

The novel begins at the CIA office in Langley Virginia. The Station Chief of Saudi Arabia arrives for a meeting with Kirk McGarvey, his superior. Informing him of what occurred during a meeting with Osama Bin Laden, upon learning that Bin Laden has a nuclear device and that his subordinate was threatened, McGarvey immediately reassigns him to desk work. The measure fails to protect the station chief as Al Quaeda sends two gunmen to track down and butcher him and his family in an ambush at Disney World Florida. With the murders catching their attention, McGarvey and the administration decide to shatter the first commandment of counter-terrorism, no negotiation. They send Kirk to Afghanistan to parlay with Osama and find a way to haggle the nuclear device out of his possession. The negotiations are inconclusive, and unpleasant national security advisor manages to convince the President to do what should have been done in the first place. Authorize a bombing run of Al Quaeda's camp. This however fails to kill Bin Laden. It does however kill one of his daughters. Regrouping, Bin Laden hatches a plan to get even with America and kicks off preparations to have "Joshua's Hammer" shipped to the states for an assassination to end all assassinations.

Plot:

In terms of plot, Joshua's Hammer is pretty average despite being one of the earliest books to make the boat deployment method for nuclear weapons popular. The scenes in Afghanistan however are pretty fun, with McGarvey doing his best impression of Steve McQueen in "The Great Escape" and trying to shoot, evade and just plain drive for his life across one of the most wretched nations of earth in order to get to the last plane out. The dialogue is corny as usual.
Now the research in the book is fascinating. Written in the days when the world wasn't as familiar with the threat of Islamic terrorism as it is now, it's sometimes hilarious to see the extent of the knowledge gap. Hagberg does get some things right, such as the internal splits between the Taliban and Al Quaeda, but other details, not so much. For example, the main plot point takes artistic license with the characterization of Osama Bin Laden. In real life, we know him as the sociopathic narcissistic zealot who cursed the world and his own religion with a plague of extremism. Here, Hagberg presents him as a well-intentioned misunderstood figure.

Characters:

First McGarvey, he's at the top of his game in this book. His experience and newfound political clout allow him to manage the situation a whole lot more smoothly than in the previous books. He also continues to retain his badass status, which is on full display in his run to Kabul's airport, with him leaving a trail of dead Islamic extremists in his wake. Next, we have the secondary antagonist whose name I've unfortunately forgotten. A former SIS officer turned Islamic terrorist, he's the tip of Al Quaeda's spear in its operation to ship their nuclear device to a major American city. Smoothly doing his work, unlike previous Hagberg antagonists, he comes seconds away from winning.
However, it's not all good. Hagberg was never good with making appealing characterization. Kirk's daughter is back to drag down the parts of the story with her in it, and apart from Bin Laden, there's another character important to the story whom had potential, but was squandered unnecessarily.

So, verdict on Joshua's Hammer.
While it popularized a particular tactic of nuclear weapons deployment in spy fiction, it isn't all that special. From the reliably terrible characterization to the sometimes hilarious/sobering knowledge gap evident of the time it was written in, I can only say, read if you're interested. ...more

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Apr 27, 2011 Mark rated it really liked it

Shelves: tech-thriller, political-thriller, spy-thriller

Hagberg does a great job in his McGarvey series...a lot of implausable stuff, but fun to read...McGarvey must stop a suitcase nuke attack against his own and the President's daughter...ironically, in light of this week's events, Osama Bin Laden is the driving force for this attack...Great Fun!!! ...more

2 likes · Like · see review