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Richard Marcinko, with the steady hand of Jim DeFelice on board, has just dropped another Rogue Warrior novel on an unsuspecting world. This one is titled VENGEANCE, and it is about what you've come to expect from Marcinko and his co-author du jour. The line between fact and fiction becomes somewhat blurred in these books. Marcinko the author runs a number of companies that provide private security, security analysis, and motivational training, just like Marcinko the Rogue Warrior. There are a number of scenarios in VENGEANCE involving mock terrorist test runs at facilities that seem to be realistic enough, and as for the rest…well, that's why it's in the fiction section, right?
The bottom line though is that you've got to love the guy. The Rogue Warrior series doesn't pretend to be great literature; what Marcinko and DeFelice do quite well, however, is tell a great, great story, or series of stories with an overriding theme. VENGEANCE, as with Marcinko's other works, is for guys who like books. The language is either a hard PG or soft R, depending on how you look at it. Marcinko, as his own alter-ego in the novels, also keeps the politically correct blue pen away from his manuscript. An unapologetic alpha-male, Marcinko tends to make his own rules, whether in the heat of battle or relationships. And there are all sorts of explosions, hand-to-hand combat situations, and other mayhem within. So, I ask you, what's not to love?
Most of VENGEANCE concerns itself with Marcinko and his Red Cell II team conducting security evaluations of high-profile facilities that have the potential to be targets for terrorists. Marcinko and Red Cell make it all look easy, though the warning "Don't Try This At Home" should be plastered across each page. One thing this book will do, however, is make the reader appreciate just how (apparently) vulnerable such things as our modes of transportation and utility facilities truly are, whether tested in quite the manner portrayed here or not.
But Marcinko has a nagging, overriding concern in VENGEANCE. Someone, an entity that Marcinko has nicknamed "Shadow," is after him and taunting him at every step. One gets the feeling that this is the equivalent of stepping on Superman's cape, or spitting into the wind, or pulling the mask off the old Lone Ranger. You'll have an inkling as to who is doing this fairly early on, but you might be wrong.
All in all, VENGEANCE is a wild and adventurous ride. If you are of a certain age you might find Marcinko's flat-out narrative style somewhat disconcerting --- information flies at you from several different directions --- but anyone raised with a video game system in the house will have a lot of fun from beginning to end.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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