A forgettable thriller, in fact, I did and had to go back and remind myself what it was about, a Ryan Kealey thriller, the first of many to follow. In this, Ryan is already a retired CIA operative, living in Maine, with his young fiancee, only to be called back into the service because two terrorists attacks on the capitol have been traced back to a renegade Special Forces team member. Ryan happened to be the team leader when William Vanderveen, the terrorist, turned, and shot everyone on his team but wounding Ryan.
No one, of course, knew what happened to Vanderveen after the incident and he's just resurfaced as the greatest threat to the United States. Ryan is called back, follows the trail of his former team member, finds that he's originally from South African and developed his hatred of the US for not backing the Apartheid government, which led to his father's death.
Anyways, it becomes clear that a major event is being planned, sending everyone scurrying around DC. Vanderveen has rented a house in Virginia, put together a bomb, and plans on killing the President, along with the French and Italian ministers. His plans are thwarted (spoiler) at the last minute by guess who, Ryan Kealey. Vanderveen escapes and if you are a careful reader, you know where he heads...to Ryan's retirement house in Maine. After the thwarted attack, all Ryan wants to do is get home to his fiancee, which is does. When he returns, Vanderbeen is holding Ryan's fiancee in his arms, with a knife at her throat. He then kills her, ends up fighting with Ryan, runs outside, and in his fight with Ryan, he falls off a cliff into the cold Atlantic Ocean. The cops come, tell Ryan know one could have survived the fall. The story ends with a local Maine couple, about ready to go to bed, hearing a noise in their house. Guess who? Not one of my favorites though this was the first of eight or nine, so the latter novels might have gotten better.
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