The Right Guard

In irregular warfare consultant Hamlet's debut, the year is 1978 and over a million planes, tanks, and jeeps have mysteriously disappeared from various National Guard enclaves across the country, only to reappear at other previously defunct National Guard facilities. This hard-to-believe premise drives a rapid-fire story of cat-and-mouse between the CIA and the Right Guard, a rogue military group that the Agency believes is responsible for the relocation of the armaments. 38-year-old CIA operative Eric Brent is tasked with gaining the trust of Right Guard member Rake Benson and infiltrating the group, which eventually leads him to Deacon Malway, the elderly fanatic leader who dreams of taking over the United States and putting it under martial law in order to tailor the fabric of American life to his liking. The novel shifts rapidly between the efforts of Deacon's group to implement its goal, and those of Eric and his support team to thwart it. Countless new one-dimensional characters are introduced at such a dizzying speed that it's difficult to keep their loyalties straight. The novel's multitude of details lend authenticity to the story (such as epigraphic real-life newspaper clippings at the beginnings of many chapters), but their sheer volume impedes the flow of the novel. (Jan.)