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William W. Johnston has jumped on the post-9/11 bandwagon and has created a book that deals with the reactions that similar terrorist attacks would create. Luckily for Johnstone the CODE NAME series that he began in 2000 provided the ideal forum. CODE NAME: QUICKSILVER is the most recent addition to this series. Operating within the United States is a secret organization that goes on dangerous missions to protect the US from its enemies. They are funded by private individuals and work outside the government. John Barrone who is a former CIA agent heads this organization. He left the CIA because although achieve his goals, he did not always follow the rules enforced about him. IN CODE NAME: QUICKSILVER a group called the Islamic Jihad Muhadin is attacking Americans and have kidnapped the President's wife and several other influential people. They have also crashed US planes at football stadiums and killed hundred. They want money wired to their account before they will release the hostages. Luckily for America, Barrone and his team are there to rescue the First Lady and save the other hostages. Once they have solved this situation, they are forced to rescue an unpopular Senator who has taken it upon herself to travel and meet one of the terrorist leaders. Barrone and his team must save the girl, kill the enemy and protect the American life style without getting themselves killed. CODE NAME: QUICKSILVER is a fast paced testosterone filled jaunt into patriotism. Johnstone uses his characters to fulfill every man's dream of protecting their way of life from enemies by blowing things up and other acts of mass destruction. CODE NAME: QUICKSILVER has many of the unappealing elements found in books written primarily for a specific male audience, which include not much plot, a lot of firepower and manly men in addition to the freedom to do as they please. Whether it is necessary to include foreigners lusting after pure American women or not is a moot debate; however, it is a tactic used by most governments to help satisfy wars, which made the use frightening. Although the villains were obviously the bad guys from the descriptions, they were stock villains rather than individuals. This book was very short. There were so many events that had to occur that there was not room left over for descriptions or even all that much dialogue. Most dialogue merely pushed the plot forward; it did not give the characters depth. To the book's advantage it is a very fast read. Also while reading the book it is easy to overlook some of this simply to make sure that the predictable ending does in fact happen. The disappointment and concerns remain unnoticed until the book is finished.
Reviewed by Sarah Dudley, July 2003
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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