The third thriller featuring Special Agent Jericho Quinn. The story covers the world, probably justifies the author's income tax deductions for travel. But, the story looses as it becomes looser. The bad guys are ruthless and the good guys get it done. In one thread, the bad guys invade Moscow, Idaho...home of the unmentioned University of Idaho. Author mentions a College of Philosophy, of which there is none. If that's not right, nothing is believable. Besides that, the book is a hard listen. Don't believe that I'll try Quinn #4. ( )

Whatever terrifying scenarios can be imagined in a world of international terrorists, drug dealers, arms dealers, spies and just plain ruthless characters, Marc Cameron has brought them all together in State of Emergency, the third thriller featuring Special Agent Jericho Quinn.
After two college students who have been traveling in Finland die gruesome deaths from radiation poisoning, and a Russian and an American special agent are murdered, Quinn is put on the case, even as he trails the United States Speaker of the House, who is himself suspected of espionage. Quinn narrowly escapes death at the hands of a bosozoku group, a highly trained and violent Japanese gang, in a parking lot in Alexandria, Virginia before being called away to deal with the radiation threat. Quinn eventually follows the terrorist trail to South America, and finds himself joining the famous Dakar Rally, a 6,000-mile motorcycle run which is right up author Cameron's alley, as he is an avid motorcyclist.
This story takes the reader on a dizzying tour of the world as it moves from terrorist encampments in Africa to the high echelons of national security in Washington, DC. The extreme ruthlessness that can exist in humankind is concentrated in characters with no scruples and perhaps no sense of humanity as most of us understand it. Even more frightening, the target of these terrorists, who have somehow gotten their hands on a "dirty bomb" named Baba Yaga for a character in a Russian fairy tale, is a gathering of a diverse group of children from a number of ethnic and religious backgrounds for an interfaith conference in Texas. State of Emergency is an action-packed novel with a thrill on every page and enough plot twists to keep Marc Cameron fans turning pages far into the night. (As published in Suspense Magazine) ( )