Third in the Penetrator men's adventure series.

This adventure concerns a plot by a sinister cabal to usurp control of the United States through corruption and/or assassination of key officials. They have Mafia ties -- they use these guys as cannon fodder -- and use an elite social club to gain blackmail material on members. The cabal has an inner circle that uses occult trappings and rituals, though it's not clear exactly why this is; I guess being cultists just ramps up the evil to the next level. They also have some military ties, including a laughably-portrayed black Air Force colonel. This guy, as depicted here, would never have made it past private. The cabal's plan for taking over the United States seems impractical at best, but hey, I guess most take-over-the-world plans are. The Penetrator ends up systematically taking down the entire plan; he even blows up their social club with a bunch of anti-tank weapons. At the end, he and a police detective chum chase the long surviving leader to Williamsburg via helicopter and kill him there (this guy had ordered the detective's wife's finger to be cut off, so we can see how truly despicable he is).

The adventure takes place in Washington, DC, northern Virginia, Williamsburg, and the Eastern Shore, all places I have lived in or been to, so I enjoyed it from that perspective. It's not a bad book, fairly typical actually, but the plot is a little too over-the-top.

Review copyright 2008 J. Andrew Byers ( )