This thriller by Reginald Nelson is the third in his I.N.C.I.S.O.R. (International Citizens for a Safe society Organization) series. Reginald Nelson is a pen name, an alter ego and the hero of the series.
Nelson and his friend Ashonte (“Ash”) Black are on Saipan to test Dr. Nelson’s discovery that a radio wave frequency can set off C-4 explosives. Ash explains the idea: “So, all of those hordes of explosives sitting in third world countries with…terrorist groups can be set off remotely? That is genius! That will set the terrorist trade back several decades!”
The invention involves using a “fixed radar facility strong enough to withstand the vibrations and a mirror platform mounted on an aircraft.” They choose the mothballed radar facility from the Cold War days on Saipan for testing.
So begins a wild ride centering on agents, counteragents. and terrorists and heavy on military tech and graphic violence. The action shifts between Saipan, Denver, Florence, Dubai, Moscow, and Washington DC, while the rest of Nelson and Black’s I.N.C.I.S.O.R. team deal with Mexican drug gangs in Denver and kidnappers in Italy—with pickleball, sex scenes, and smugglers carrying a WWII treasure interspersed. Reginald and Ash are finally joined by the rest of the I.N.C.I.S.O.R. team to stop a Russian-backed, Iraqi terrorist assault on Saipan.
The story is formulaic and weaves in several subplots that are only loosely connected. The jumping between the many plot threads and locations interrupts the overall flow and becomes distracting. Additionally, snappy, off-color patter that appears throughout can grow tiring (“‘Old friend, I’m getting away with Becky for a couple of nights. We need some alone time,’ I said to Ash. ‘Bullshit! You are just a horny bastard!’ Ash retorted. ‘Where are you going? Guam?’ ‘Nope, staying right here. I heard the Kensington is nice,” I replied. ‘What’s it matter…you’ll be horizontal the whole time!’”).
Other than killing off two characters from previous novels, there are no real surprises in this one, which will appeal mostly to fans of the previous stories in the series.
Also available as an ebook.
