The gripping second Strategic Solutions Inc. military thriller from Coyle and Tillman (after Pandora’s Legion
) details the workings of a PMC, or private military contractor. The U.S. government, which wants plausible deniability if things go wrong, hires SSI to send a team to a corrupt, unstable Chad to train its army in counterinsurgency techniques. The authors dig into the contract negotiations, move through the operation’s organization and planning stages, and open out into training and the operation itself. Things begin to fall apart when stopping a secret shipment of yellow cake uranium destined for Iran takes precedence over the SSI team’s original mission. An overabundance of characters leaves little time for development, but the operational minutiae are absorbing (even the contract negotiations), and the action, which ranges from the desert to the high seas, explosive. The authors keep reader interest high from the intriguing beginning to the final promethean twist. (Oct.)
