Not up to Griffin's usual standard
579843
Have been a fan of Griffin for many years and have all of his books.  That said, I was very disappointed with this latest work.  the president was a baffoon and his  staff unbelievable for persons working in the White House.  I missed the action found in his previous volumes.
2742964
I've read the first two books in this series, and they're frustrating. I think I'm done with W.E.B. Griffin. There are too many better writers when it comes to wartime espionage: Alan Furst, David Downing, even Ken Follett.

Griffin's writing is just so stilted and constipated. Does he have to describe his characters with their full name and military rank almost every time he mentions them? His main characters go through very little struggle or hardship. This kills any suspense and, frankly, character development. The main character is literally waited on hand and foot. He doesn't even have to get his own beer.

Everyone is constantly drinking the finest liquor and eating the grandest meals. All the meetings take place in 5-star hotels. Where's the grit and the noir? I get why these books are popular: They're total escapism. Who wouldn't want to be a handsome Marine pilot/spy in Argentina who just inherited a fortune and is engaged to a young, beautiful woman? But everything comes too easy for this main character, and there are 50 pages of talk for every page of action.

Yawn.
1682927
I listened to the audio cassette abridgement of this novel, but I can't imagine the unabridged version would be much better.  I listened to the first side of cassette one and yawned, hoped the next side would be better - and then the next cassette and the next.  I was disappointed.  Not much of an ending - obviously setting up for (hopefully more and better) action in future novels in the series.

This is my first Griffin novel and most likely my last.  "Stuff" happens, but nothing very interesting.  It made me think differently about the early battle for the Philippines; that was the most I got out of this book.  I didn't really care what happened to the main characters - lots of drinking, lots of sex - so what?  Even with historical figures like Roosevelt, MacArthur, and Donovan, I just didn't care what happened.  I finished the book hoping it would get better, and it didn't.  If you want a good World War Two novel, stick with Alistair MacLean.
795135
Like others who reviewed the first book in this series (A WICKED GENTLEMAN), I am a fan of JF's older books.  She just seemed to be trying harder then.
What I like about the series is the fact that the three women are mature and sensible.  In AWG, Harry (the hero) even remarks twice [in case the reader missed it the first time] that these women have a mature sense of humor and can laugh at sexual jokes - and how unusual that is.
Like AWG, this book had too many characters and it was often difficult to figure out just what the Russians were plotting.  Nothing happened for 80% of the book.  The only suspense was at the end and the denoument could have been lifted from any other romance novel.  Nothing original there.
There were also lots of dangling threads:  What was the scene in the lawyer's office about when Alex asks him to vet the will?  Why was Sophia so self-sacrificing, when Alexis wasn't?  Just too tortured.
I was also bothered by the fairly constant misuse of titles.  Very sloppy.
I didn't mind the yapping dogs as they added some comic relief.
An okay book, which I did finish, but if I had it to do over again, I wouldn't buy it.
4796801
Here's an almost philosophical question for you?  What would happen if a thriller/suspense writer penned a novel that had absolutely NONE, ZERO, NADA, NYET suspense, thrills, and/or action (I'm not kidding) in it?  Well, if it were the author's first book, then it would clearly be his/her last.  If you W.E.B. Griffin, a good half of your audience will forgive you because you've done so darn well in the past.  This book, however, should never have left the editor's office.  Conversation should have gone something like: "Hey Griff, got your last rewrite of The Shooters and love the dialog."  "What else did you think?"  "Well to be honest Griff, that is where it stops... aside from the dialog, the story just sort of meanders all over the place... did you forget to put in the action scenes we talked about?"  "uh, No... my audience doesn't need that stuff to enjoy my books..." "Griff, have you gone mad?!  They'll crucify you... a Griffin book with no action... like having a football game without the players... it doesn't work Griff and I cannot in good conscience sign off on this manuscript.  You've got to give me something I can publish."  "Fair enough, I'll get back to you..."  Alas, that clearly did Not happen so Griffin fans were stuck with one seriously lame book.  Buy it as a substitute for Ambien.  And then move on to something better.
2563663
A good story destroyed by too much inaction, needless background and just plain uninteresting detail. Castillo is a good character, but Griffin was all over the place in his treatment of him.

This book really needed an editor to tighten it up. Of the book's 700+ pages, I'd say 200 could have been dropped without hurting the story.. and probably would have helped it bigtime.

Come on W.E.B., you're better than this.
724754
This is a very disappointing book. Long passages are reiterations of what occurred in earlier books, with the details mixed up. There is very little action and a lot of what is supposed to be comedy, but which falls flat. This has been my favorite W.E.B. Griffin series, but I wanted my money back for this book.
4903334
I have been reading Griffin novels since "The Lieutenants" was released some 25 years ago. He is above all, a superb storyteller. The best things about Griffin's novels are plot and character development. Unfortunately, at times, reading his books becomes more than a bit tedious because of his tendency to go into excruciating detail about what transpired in previous novels in a series. Griffin, like most popular authors, has an established following of readers. The majority of people who buy his books have read his prior books and this repetition of what has gone before is unnecessary, condescending and very boring. It is disruptive to the reader because it interrupts the smooth flow of the storyline in the current book. I find myself skipping pages just to get to something that I have not read multiple times before. A sentence or two, if necessary to refresh the reader's recollection of the character and context in the storyline, would be more than sufficient. If the reader was, in fact, new to Griffin; this approach would encourage him to go back and read the prior books in the series (helping overall sales). Griffin does a good job of creating some interesting characters (though some are more caricature than character) and weaving them into storyline based upon historical facts. He does this in some detail. The five (5) prior Honor Bound books in the series cover a time period of slightly more than one year, October 1, 1942 through October 17, 1943 in some 2,500 pages. The fifth novel in the series ends with the main character, Cletus Howell Frade, standing on a dirt road with a Thompson submachine gun having just assisted in putting down and incipient revolution. Several elements of the storyline are left hanging including, but not limited to; what happens to Juan Peron, the relationship between Frade and his wife, Frade's ongoing problems with his chain of command; the Nazi activity in Argentina against both Frade and SAA; and Frade's part in the Gehlen conspiracy. Suddenly, in "Victory and Honor", the 6th book in the Honor Bound series, we are magically transported from October 17, 1943 to May 3, 1945. What the hell happened in the missing 19 month time period? Many storylines from the end of "The Honor of Spies" are lost and gone forever." Others, are presumptively resolved in some unknown way because to storyline context of "Victory and Honor." The missing period should have been worth at least a couple of books to bring the reader up to date on the whole story. I read "Victory and Honor, but was left with a totally dissatisfied feeling at the end of the book because I knew only half of the story to date date, and will apparently never know the rest of it because what happened between October 17th, 1943 and May 3rd is lost forever. I gave the book a "3" star rating for what was in it. But for what is not there, it deserves a "0" rating.
620624
To my knowledge I have every book WEB Griffin has written.  I must give this one the lowest rating of them all.
While the story is interesting and enjoyable there is way way to much rehash on who the individuals in the story
are.  I am sure that information would be helpful to a new reader.  However, it seemed like it took up about half of
this new book with rehash on what a regular reader already knew.  Don't know the answer but would encourage
you to tell new readers to purchase previous published books to gain additional knowledge about the individuals
if you feel they need to know.
2926628
Shockingly boring compared to all her other books in this series.  I was very disappointed because I usually thoroughly enjoy Laura Griffin's tales.  This plot ran incredibly slow.  It took over half the book to be moderately interested in the story line.  I was so glad when I finished this book so I could move on to something more interesting.
3125956
This book was written by the son, Butterworth IV and not by Griffin. I have read all of W.E.B Griffin's books and this is not a Griffin book. Too much of the book is about the bad guys and not enough of the good guys created by Griffin. This book does not an have ending. Butterworth IV is not his father and does not write like his father. He is using his fathers name to sell books.
775279
I've read every book in this series, but have been very disappointed in the last few - and this is the worst.  Where I always enjoyed the adventures of Stephanie and laughed out loud at Lula and Stephanie's grandmother, the laughs have been less frequent of late, and, in this book, are nonexistent.

Maybe another sign of the series' decline was this book's inability to keep me interested; I finished reading it because it was there - not because I wanted to.

I hope Evanovich spends more time on the 22nd book, and returns to her enjoyable story-telling.  John Grisham's books got better when he slowed down, so hopefully the same thing will happen here.
4379022
Too many characters. Although there is one main plot there are also many sub-plots. At times the story gets confusing. The reader continues to read, maybe hoping the confusion will end. It never does! Griffin's best series was The Corp series; stick with those and you won't go wrong.
3204019
Curtain of Death, W. E. B. Griffin & William E. Butterworth IV book, is actually between two and three stars. Many years ago I read W. E. B. Griffin's books as soon as I could buy them. Now? No! Mr. Griffin's first books,until he partnered with Butterworth,, were excellent reads. This book is full of Army officers and non-coms each doing their job in non believable situations. I was, ASA, many years ago. I believe this is why this book did not make with me. I'm sorry, Mr. Griffin, I don't know how much input you had, but once again, NO! Rated "R" for very strong language and violence.
3859846
This is a shameful book simply because it's a disgrace to the Presidential Agent series of novels.  As I read through it, I couldn't help but feel like Griffin simply wanted to squeeze a few additional dollars out of his loyal readership without putting any effort into making even a somewhat decent book.

It contains an absurd amount of recap of old material (even for a Griffin novel).  I'm gauging about 70% of the book to be recap or a highly-predictable extrapolation of past material.  And, most of the new material is a cheap, silly attempt at humor that comes across like a poor slapstick-style comedy.  What an amazingly sharp contrast to older Griffin novels.

I had pre-ordered this book for my Kindle and had committed to not reading any of the reviews until I had finished the book.  That was a big mistake.  I wish I had read the reviews before I bought this miserable waste of time and money.  I'm going to be much more cautious in the future when any new Griffin novels are released.
2642715
It worn out and not really serves the purpose. Griffin is much better work likes a beast for protection
3793070
I have read a few of Coonts books on my Kindle.  They are good reads similar in nature to Cussler and Griffin where a central character spans a series of tomes. I skipped ahead to read this Jake Grafton book, out of series, on the recommendation in a forum I follow.

I can see that the reviews of this book seems to be either 5 star or 1 star. Hummmm, the possibilities presented in this work of fiction apparently don't appeal to those who subscribe to a certain political ideology.