The Dublin Affair

Guy Ryan, West Pointer, Heisman Trophy candidate, Rhodes scholar and Vietnam vet, is recalled from a salvage operation in the Caribbean to the deathbed of his estranged father, Sean Ryan, CEO of RyTech, multinational corporate contractor for the Defense Department. With his last breath, Sean asks his son to take control of RyTech and hints at both a conspiracy inside the giant corporation and a mystery that will ultimately lead Guy back to Ireland. Reluctantly, Guy assumes control of RyTech and goes on to confront an international collection of all the usual suspects. Before the book ends, he takes on the KGB, Arab terrorists, corrupt corporate executives, a stateless bacchanalian arms dealer, the Irish Republican Army and an impotent, liberal Congress soft on the communist-terrorist threat to U.S. security. But it isn't all hard work; when Guy is not fighting terrorism, he stops by some of the best restaurants in Europe and in New York. Former intelligence officer Donoghue has combined, in one convenient location, seemingly every cliche of the contemporary military-industrial jet-set novel. The dialogue is stilted, the story predictable and the hero too god-like for even escapist fiction. (July)