Book Review: Act of Terror by Marc Cameron

The second Jericho Quinn novel opens with a series of attacks undertaken by the most unlikely of people. The most shocking of all is a shooting at CIA headquarters perpetuated by a high-ranking CIA deputy director. Like all the other sudden terrorists, there is nothing in his background to suggest such radicalisation.

Elsewhere, Jericho Quinn is in Alaska, and trying to patch up a failing marriage. He is at an event with his daughter when terrorist hitmen try to kill them all, and the sudden in-your-face moment convinces Quinn’s wife that she’s better off not married to someone who’s work earns him such enemies.

With the seeming breakdown of his marriage again, Quinn obviously needs a new love interest to keep him interested – what sort of a hero would he be, otherwise, right? – and she appears soon thereafter in the form of Veronica “Ronnie” Garcia, a security guard at the CIA involved in stopping the massacre started by the deputy director. Somewhat implausibly, because of that role, she is assumed to be above suspicion and therefore drawn into the covert operation to get to the bottom of the attacks.

I understand Quinn needing a woman, but I didn’t like that Garcia sort of takes over as his sidekick, replacing the excellent Marine Jacques Thibodeaux, who is sidelined for most of the book. After all the work Cameron did to build up the relationship between Quinn and Thibodeaux in the first novel, National Security, I figured the Cajun would have a similarly large role going forward. Not so much in this one, which is about my only disappointment.

Act of Terror is a fast-moving military-political thriller that raises the interesting – and, to be frank, frightening – concept of sleep agents brainwashed as children, converted into martyrs, inserted into agencies like the CIA and police forces, and activated as necessary to commit terrorist attacks.

I read a lot of this type of novel, and the angle Cameron puts forward is one I haven’t seen before. Of course, Jericho Quinn is there to save the day, but not before being earmarked as a possible embedded terrorist of the same order, which presents some complications as he tries to catch the real bad guys whilst clearing his name.

Can’t wait to read the next Jericho Quinn novel!