The Aden Effect: A Connor Stark Novel

Reviewed by Justin Scott. No one can blame the Naval Institute Press for hunting another Red October. But even though Berube lays down military acronyms like suppressing fire (enough WEPSs, CHENGs, BUPERSs, RPGs, OODs and VERTREPs, to launch Tom Clancy fans toward their USNI Dictionary of Naval Terms), The Aden Effect deserves to cut its chains and steam on its own. Starring disgraced U.S. Navy commander-turned-mercenary Connor Stark in a sprawling battle against Somali pirates, Yemeni intrigue, al-Qaeda chaos, Chinese arrogance, and Washington treachery, it is an ambitious first novel by a former naval intelligence officer%E2%80%94but it%E2%80%99s astonishingly schizophrenic. It reads as if two people wrote it: an intelligence officer and an excellent writer mistakenly thrown in the brig. Berube has some interesting characters, but they talk too much, telling in leaden dialogue what%E2%80%99s going to happen, then what%E2%80%99s happening, then what happened. But when they finally shut up, the author provides exciting, plausible action%E2%80%94enough to make you hold your breath and squeeze the pages until they%E2%80%99re wet with perspiration. Even more to his credit, Berube%E2%80%99s prose has an unexpected emotional impact. The Navy stuff reads like he%E2%80%99s been there%E2%80%94although it%E2%80%99s oddly detached from the sea itself%E2%80%94perhaps reflecting the insulating effect of modern ships and high-tech gear. He%E2%80%99s happier in helicopters, while the best set piece%E2%80%94a terrific shoot-out involving Stark and his prickly sidekick and rival, U.S. diplomatic security special agent Damien Golzari%E2%80%94explodes miles from salt water on a rock in the desert. At his worst, Berube%E2%80%99s characters%E2%80%99 inner thoughts are trivial, if not downright banal, their ceaseless banter is forced, and their sensibilities and observations are oddly out-of-date. (When was the last time anyone got a bad meal in London%E2%80%99s splendid restaurants?) Similarly, his analysis of the political situation in the Horn of Africa reads as if he wrote the book some years ago and never got around to revising it. To be fair, trying to keep a thriller up to date is a mug%E2%80%99s game, as futile as trying to time the stock market. And the author does personalize the chaos with his portrait of the factitious family of Yemeni shipping magnate Mutahar. Clich%C3%A9s abound. Readers can hope Berube burned through them all%E2%80%94like his gallant, but lamely led, undermanned and budgetarily defanged cruiser USS Bennington running out of fuel%E2%80%94before he starts his next book, because his Connor Stark is a believable individual. Stark is, potentially, much more than the standard cynical and embittered victim of unfair treatment%E2%80%94a guy who has done what it took to move on and enjoy a life with friends and a wonderful lover, Maggie the Ullapool barkeep. I predict a tourist invasion of Maggie%E2%80%99s West Highlands fishing port led by readers of The Aden Effect, all demanding a dram of single malt in Maggie%E2%80%99s Friar John Cor pub. Justin Scott, author of The Shipkiller, collaborates with Clive Cussler on the Isaac Bell adventures (The Thief), and writes the Robert Ludlum Janson series (The Janson Command) under the pen name Paul Garrison.