Black Ops | 
 enlarge | Author: W.e.b. Griffin
Publisher: Putnam Adult
Category: Book
List Price: $26.95
Buy New: $10.00
You Save: $16.95 (63%)
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Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 349
Media: Hardcover
Reading Level: Young Adult
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 464
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.7
ISBN: 0399155171
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780399155178
ASIN: 0399155171
Publication Date: December 30, 2008 (New: Last 30 Days)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
The Russian bear is stirringand its hungry in the #1 New York Timesbestselling series thrilling fifth novel.
The first disturbing reports reached Delta Force Lieutenant Colonel Charley Castillo in the form of backchannel messages concerning covert U.S. intelligence assets working for a variety of agencies suddenly gone missing and then, suddenly, inexplicably, found dying. Or dead. One in Budapest, Hungary. One in Kiev, Ukraine. One in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, mere klicks from the Iran border. And then one in Virginia, along the Potomac River, practically in the shadow of CIA headquarters.
Castillo finds the information both infuriating and fascinating, particularly after a recent experience with two CIA traitors whose own deaths were swift and suspicious. Despite there being some similarities, though, he thinks theres something different with these new cases, something he cant quite put his finger on. At first, its idle thought, but Castillo expects its only a matter of time before the commander in chief assigns him and his group of troubleshooters in the innocuously named Office of Organizational Analysis to look into the deaths while all those intel agencies fight among themselves trying to put the pieces together.
Meanwhile, Castillo has problems of his ownfallout from recent missions involving a clandestine rescue of a DEA agent from South American drug runners, and the confiscation of some fifty million dollars from thieves in the Iraqi oil-for-food scandal. Hes made more than a few enemies, he knowsboth foreign and domestic. And then comes another back-channel message, this one delivered personally by his lethal friend, the Russian mobster arms dealer. All that has happened so far, he says, is just a warm-up for whats about to come out of the Kremlin.
Could sabers be rattling for a new Cold War? Or worse? Presidential Agent C. G. Castillo is about to find out. . . .
Filled with Griffins trademark rich characters and cutting-edge drama, this is another exceptional novel in an exceptional series.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
 Same old boring story..... January 6, 2009
Giving hope that this one wouldn't be as boring as the previous books, I was once again bored to tears with this book. You'd think being a secret unit from different agencies and units, being led by a Delta Colonel, there'd be some tid-bit of action in this. Yet, this book falls flat....though that's where Castillo spends most of the book - flat on his back in bed w/ a Russian spy....
C'mon - all this planning and more planning and more planning...for what? Absolutely nothing!!!
 Griffin (and Castillo) fan expected better January 4, 2009
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
As a long-time W.E.B. Griffin fan, I was eagerly waiting for this next in the Presidential Agent series. Although a good enough read, I was disappointed to find that this book did not measure up to the previous books. Don't get me wrong, I don't want my money back, and it did provide a relaxing evening. Perhaps other readers should wait for the paperback edition.
 The end of the series January 3, 2009
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is the last of the Presidential Agent series which began with the story of the hijacked airliner. It starts slowly and I think Griffin may not have written the first few chapters. About a quarter of the way in, when I was getting impatient with all the exposition of back story and the rather wooden character development, the pace picks up and it seems Griffin is back. I suspect his son may have done the early chapters. If you are familiar with the other books of the series, skim those early chapters. The writing picks up and the plot gets going when Russian SVR agents contact Castillo and tell him he is set up for assassination. From that point on, we are back with the WEB Griffin skills in plot and character development that have kept us reading his novels for 25 years.
The plot pulls together all the seemingly unconnected threads of the other stories and explains the various characters and their relationships. Griffin is teaching us more Russian history, including the current Russian leadership about which he has strong opinions. I don't know how accurate his information is, for example he has another theory about Ivan the Terrible than I have read, but he has been right before. He has sources of information that don't write books. Anyway, after a slow start (for which I subtract one star), the novel gets going and is a great example of Griffin's story telling.
The ending, which others have complained about, actually opens a new chapter and may promise more books with Charley Castillo and his band of warriors. I had actually wondered how Griffin was going to handle the changes in Washington. The President in the series is obviously Bush and the other cabinet officers are recognizable. That will change so a Presidential Agent may now become the agent of the shadowy group of patriots that appears at the end. This novel also introduces what may be the real romance in Charlie's life and I can see more books with this theme, as well.
I recommend it for those who have read the other books in the series and, as far as I am concerned, Griffin hasn't lost his touch. Alexander Dumas had a writing team that composed large sections of his novels. Those novels have stood the test of time and these will too.
Griffin goes bust SAVE your money. January 3, 2009
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
Hang on gang this is not going to be easy.
Its 1 am and I just finished as much of this book as I can, so excuse my spelling errors.
I own "every" book written by Griffin, I'm a huge fan, and I unfortunately bought this book well.
It seems that every writer gets to a point where he or she just should retire, and this is it for Griffin. It feels like Griffin did not even write this book, or if he did he did write this book he forgot what all of his books are about. Yikes this is AWFUL! Can I get my money back?
The End? January 2, 2009
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Black Ops
I think that I own all of Griffin's recent series and enjoy sharing them with my friends.
In preparation for the arrival I re-read the previous four volumes. This is a realistic government agency and keeps growing by "leaps and bounds".
It seemed a little disjointed in the beginning and the Secretary of Homeland Security, Matt Hall, seems to have disappeared. I really felt that he should have been at the final conferences with the President to defend him. In view of the fact that the President held firm in "cashiering" LTC Castillo at the end I feel that this may be the last of the Presidential Agent series. I am sad.
I have now read the book twice and really wish that the President could have kept his private investigative service going. They only did what they were supposed to do. My summary would be that "No good deed goes unpunished".
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