The Aden Effect
A Connor Stark Novel
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $19.99
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
In this exciting contemporary thriller, pirates are capturing ships at will off the Horn of Africa and the navies of the world cannot protect the international shipping lanes. In response, the newly confirmed Ambassador to Yemen, C.J. Sumner, is assigned by the White House to negotiate access to the rich oil fields off the island of Socotra and to convince the Yemenis’ to help deter the pirates. Meeting with resistance to her diplomatic overtures, Sumner becomes desperate as the White House Chief of Staff continues to question her ability to succeed in the mission. In need of someone in the military who knows the region and its people, the Ambassador recruits former naval officer turned mercenary Connor Stark who is reluctantly returned to active duty as her defense attaché. Meanwhile, Diplomatic Security Agent Damien Golzari is investigating the domestic death of a State Department official’s son when he stumbles on to an illicit khat trade among Somali refugees in New England which he traces to the Horn of Africa. Witnesses are murdered in his wake as he travels to Yemen only to have his investigation interfered with by Stark. As more ships are being attacked by pirates, Stark boards a Maddox International security ship, used to escort the company’s cargo platforms to the oil rigs. Pirates sink it, killing most of the crew. Stark is rescued by the morale-plagued USS Bennington, a Navy cruiser on its final deployment. Stark is returned to the Embassy and plans on meeting with his contact, a Yemeni businessman who is part of the ruling family. Sumner assigns Golzari to protect Stark as Golzari’s drug trail and murder investigation lead to a shipping company owned by Stark’s contact. Stark and Golzari are ambushed on their return to the Embassy leading them to believe there is a leak at the embassy or in Washington. Sumner plans a humanitarian assistance mission to Socotra to earn the favor of the Yemeni government. All she is given by the White House is the only ship in the region – the USS Bennington. During an attack engineered by the pirates off Socotra, most of the ship’s officers are killed. Stark assumes command of the Bennington and plans a counterattack against the pirates. The ambitious counterattack is successful. Sumner negotiates a new treaty with the Yemenis and India to jointly develop the oil fields and provide mutual security from the Somali pirates. Stark learns that the pirates have been organized and funded by a U.S. government official which leads to the White House. In a final confrontation between law and justice, Stark and Golzari must decide whether to challenge the most powerful man in the world.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Reviewed by Justin Scott. No one can blame the Naval Institute Press for hunting another Red October. But even though Berube lays down military acronyms like suppressing fire (enough WEPSs, CHENGs, BUPERSs, RPGs, OODs and VERTREPs, to launch Tom Clancy fans toward their USNI Dictionary of Naval Terms), The Aden Effect deserves to cut its chains and steam on its own. Starring disgraced U.S. Navy commander-turned-mercenary Connor Stark in a sprawling battle against Somali pirates, Yemeni intrigue, al-Qaeda chaos, Chinese arrogance, and Washington treachery, it is an ambitious first novel by a former naval intelligence officer but it s astonishingly schizophrenic. It reads as if two people wrote it: an intelligence officer and an excellent writer mistakenly thrown in the brig. Berube has some interesting characters, but they talk too much, telling in leaden dialogue what s going to happen, then what s happening, then what happened. But when they finally shut up, the author provides exciting, plausible action enough to make you hold your breath and squeeze the pages until they re wet with perspiration. Even more to his credit, Berube s prose has an unexpected emotional impact. The Navy stuff reads like he s been there although it s oddly detached from the sea itself perhaps reflecting the insulating effect of modern ships and high-tech gear. He s happier in helicopters, while the best set piece a terrific shoot-out involving Stark and his prickly sidekick and rival, U.S. diplomatic security special agent Damien Golzari explodes miles from salt water on a rock in the desert. At his worst, Berube s characters inner thoughts are trivial, if not downright banal, their ceaseless banter is forced, and their sensibilities and observations are oddly out-of-date. (When was the last time anyone got a bad meal in London s splendid restaurants?) Similarly, his analysis of the political situation in the Horn of Africa reads as if he wrote the book some years ago and never got around to revising it. To be fair, trying to keep a thriller up to date is a mug s game, as futile as trying to time the stock market. And the author does personalize the chaos with his portrait of the factitious family of Yemeni shipping magnate Mutahar. Clich s abound. Readers can hope Berube burned through them all like his gallant, but lamely led, undermanned and budgetarily defanged cruiser USS Bennington running out of fuel before he starts his next book, because his Connor Stark is a believable individual. Stark is, potentially, much more than the standard cynical and embittered victim of unfair treatment a guy who has done what it took to move on and enjoy a life with friends and a wonderful lover, Maggie the Ullapool barkeep. I predict a tourist invasion of Maggie s West Highlands fishing port led by readers of The Aden Effect, all demanding a dram of single malt in Maggie s Friar John Cor pub. Justin Scott, author of The Shipkiller, collaborates with Clive Cussler on the Isaac Bell adventures (The Thief), and writes the Robert Ludlum Janson series (The Janson Command) under the pen name Paul Garrison.
