Book Review: National Security by Marc Cameron

Published: January 2011

Chronology: Jericho Quinn #01

Genre(s): Military, Espionage, Thriller

Kitch’s Rating: 8/10

As I’ve alluded to in previous reviews, I love the fast-paced military/espionage thriller that pits a usually indestructible – or mostly indestructible  – American hero, either a current or former member of the military, against a heinous plot engineered, usually, by a Middle Eastern terrorist, and often with slimy American politicians undermining everything to engineer their own advancement.

Marc Cameron’s debut is a great example of what I love, though without the corrupt American politician, and I enjoyed it so much I finished it inside of a few days, basically reading large chunks whenever I could. The basic plot is predictable, and you know what’s likely to happen, but that doesn’t make it any less gripping.

Cameron writes like Vince Flynn, Brad Thor, Brad Taylor and others: at breakneck speed, and his hero, Jericho Quinn – codename: the Hammer – a member of the USAF’s Office of Special Investigations, is a Jack Bauer-type hero, who’ll do anything to get a result, including torturing the bad guys.

The beginning of the book details the early stages of a plot masterminded by some religious zealots: they’ve developed a virus that can be given to one of their martyrs, who then is to roam around America, infecting millions of people before dying in the most gruesome of manners. The bad guys staged a bombing in a Denver shopping centre to keep the Americans looking in the other direction, and when a man is infected on a flight heading to the US – ostensibly a test – the USAF are forced to shoot the plane from the sky, after all it’s passengers show signs of developing symptoms.

It’s a pretty serious and jaw-dropping start to the book, and, the gateway to a scheme that is relevant and scary. Imagine a real-life scenario and how many millions could die horribly after being infected with a virus engineered to be easily passed around. Cameron’s descriptions of the final death throes of victims is horrible, but well put. The seriousness of the threat can never be forgotten.

At the same time as Washington is dealing with the burgeoning threat, Quinn is working in the Middle East, and rescues a Marine by going against orders from his commanding officer. A court martial ensues, but it turns out the man he saved, with assistance from a burly Marine, Cajun Jacques Thibodeaux, is the grandson of the president’s head of national intelligence, and it’s Palmer who rescues Quinn from a seemingly-certain dismissal and Quinn, along with Thibodeaux, is sent on a desperate hunt for the three terrorists who are transporting the virus into America.

Sure, National Security doesn’t have the same nuance as a Tom Clancy novel, but it also doesn’t get insanely bogged down on the technology front. Cameron’s pace is flat-out fast all the way, making it hard to stop reading. There’s always something happening, and some great secondary characters – CDC doctor Megan Mahoney and Quinn’s outlaw bikie brother, Bo – pop up every now and again as Quinn and Thibodeaux, whose chemistry is one of the strengths of this story, chase down and kill the terrorists, who centre the climax of the scheme on Fort Worth in Texas.

Or is it the climax? The epilogue sets up future events nicely, and I can’t wait to read more of Jericho Quinn.