Review: Rambo Meets Heidi Klum Meets Inspector Gadget
Rating: 1 out of 5
Date: 03 10, 2012
**Possible Spoilers** If I had to review this book in one word it would be 'ridiculous'.  I had high hopes the first few pages as the initial crime unfolded.  I went into it willing to suspend belief about a model using that profession as a cover for her real job as a CIA agent.  When I read Jaclyn's back story about her parents and her near blindness I thought, "Hmmm...this is intriguing."Before too long though it became apparent that this book was going to fail due to cartoonish bag guys, silly superhero type gadgetry, and a plot whose holes you could fly a plane through.What could have been an interesting thriller was anything but.  The villain of the piece was presented immediately.  A mystery surrounding who murdered the 46 people with poisoned bottled water would have been engrossing.  Instead, super baddie, (and comically sociopathic) Grant Chillings is dumped into the reader's lap.I kept waiting for a clever explanation for his horrible deeds and how, exactly, he planned to gain the monopoly on the bottled beverage industry but it never materialized.  His end game was that he was going to add poison to his competitor's products and the local water supply, thereby forcing people to drink his bottled water or nothing at all.  He wasn't going to get caught or prosecuted for his crimes because he was justified in commiting them and the government wouldn't dare touch him.  I'm no expert, but I believe that narcissists feel justified in their actions, but they aren't patently stupid.When he murdered the entire Board of Directors of his company I was thinking, "You don't think somebody might notice you did that?"Then we come to our heroine.  Again, this could have been a very interesting character, but failed miserably.  We are asked to believe that the government could only spare one inexperienced CIA agent and a 'watchdog' for her after 46 people die from poisoning and later 9 children are hospitalized in another attempt.  That's how the government would react to terrorism?When Agent 'Snapshot's' partner is eventually killed she is told by the director of the CIA that she'll have to 'go it alone' since they can't spare anybody else to help out with the investigation.  Riiiigggghhhht.The rest of this tale consists of Jaclyn running around in a skin tight black jumpsuit that is equipped with special spy toys, using her custom made spy Porche to wage war on Grant Chilling's laughable 'army' (in one of Boston's main government buildings, no less), and the female President of the United States using Boston's Duck Boats to storm the villain's lair.  If it sounds stupid that's because it is...painfully so.Also, the author's insistence on describing Jaclyn's profuse sweating as she runs around Boston in her spy suit and trenchcoat became sickening.One surprise bright side to this book was the unintentional comedic factor.  I found myself chuckling at several of the more absurd parts such as Jaclyn's mercurial response to different situations, which I can't imagine any self respecting CIA agent indulging in.  Also, the idea of government sanctioned destruction of city property (including missiles launched from Jaclyn's car) had me laughing and shaking my head.Most amusing were the spy toys Jaclyn had at her disposal.  The unfortunate part is that none of them really helped her.  With the exception of her body armor and the security system evading app for her iPad, the bad guys still kept getting the jump on her.For a woman who was trained to use all her senses in deference of her very poor eyesight and who was required to take out several Navy SEALS as a part of that training; she was amazingly inept at defending herself.I considered giving this book 2 stars because it had potential, but decided that it merited only one because of its blatant waste of a good story line.