Review: Too Heavy on the Physical Violence and Not Connected to a Bigger Theme
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 04 18, 2014
Normally this is the kind of cold war spy action book that I enjoy reading.  In this case, there were some elements of this book I enjoyed such as the action sequences, descriptions of some of the bad and the good guys, scenes in exotic foreign locations etc.  At the same time there were elements that I did not like such as too much unexplained regarding the main characters and what they were trying to accomplish.  Also there were too many characters doing similar things which is confusing to the reader.  There was also excessive physical violence and detailed explanations of it, maybe this is what you get when a doctor writes a book.  I also did not see any connection in this book to a bigger picture or a bigger theme such as the Russian FSB, Islamic terrorists, or the C.I.A,  There is no meaningful explanation of why the summit meeting was happening, what was to be accomplished through it, and who the political leaders were.  Most of the Tom Clancy, Vince Flynn books do a really good job of painting this larger context which I did not see in Ratcatcher.  Because of this I found myself getting bored and putting the book down frequently.  I had to force myself to get all the way to the end to find out what happens.  I was not pulled through it as is the case with a Vince Flynn or Tom Clancy book.  I am really undecided as to whether I will continue reading this series base on what I read in the first book.