Kirkus has been an authoritative voice in book discovery for 80 years. I’m pleased to post Kirkus Review‘s review of The Drone Enigma.
Former lawyer and Navy SEAL Jake Palmer returns in McManus’ second thriller (Libido’s Twist, 2011), working a simple case that escalates into murder and a potential terrorist attack.
Investigative consultant Palmer is looking for an easy job, since his last left him with a bullet wound. Friend and fellow SEAL Wade Jansen, a vice president at defense contractor Lynnhaven Technology Group in Virginia, has just the ticket: He wants Palmer to investigate whether a failure of LTG safety measures led to a woman’s overexposure to the chemical thallium. That woman, an engineer for a high-tech drone project, has since died, and her death doesn’t seem accidental. Palmer also finds out that project leader Owen Fuller’s laptop was recently lost. A woman named Alona Green claims to have inadvertently switched laptops with Fuller at an airport, but after she contacts Jansen to return the computer, the VP is found murdered. Palmer swears vengeance against the killer, and soon realizes that the drone project may also have been compromised. It turns out that the murders may be connected to Islamic terrorists, led by drone-attack survivor Hassan Aswad, who are planning a strike against the United States. The author lays the foundation for a military thriller and fortifies it with a rock-solid mystery. There’s a bounty of action sequences, mostly in the book’s final act; these fierce, bullet-ridden scenes, which include more than one boat chase, may have readers ducking their heads to avoid gunfire. Palmer is flanked on all sides by female characters: Cmdr. Lara Hamilton, whom he’d dated 20 years earlier in college; the alluring Green, who calls Palmer for help; and, back in London, Fiona Collins, who shared Palmer’s last adventure and who just might be the woman he loves. But none of them measure up to Cora Donegan, an accommodating and informative LTG human-resources rep who has the novel’s best line, warning Palmer not to “do anything stupid,” followed by: “And when you do, be careful.”
A thriller with copious action and an exceptional mystery.