In the Line of Fire

The Corps #5

by Max Allan Collins

Torn apart by his inability to protect President Kennedy from assassination thirty years earlier, Secret Service agent Frank Horrigan must overcome his personal demons to protect a new president from a deadly contract killer. Original. Movie tie-in.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Military Fiction, War, Historical, Thriller, Adventure

262 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 16, 1992

About the author

Received the Shamus Award, "The Eye" (Lifetime achievment award) in 2006.

He has also published under the name Patrick Culhane. He and his wife, Barbara Collins, have written several books together. Some of them are published under the name Barbara Allan.

Book Awards
Shamus Awards Best Novel winner (1984) : True Detective
Shamus Awards Best Novel winner (1992) : Stolen Away
Shamus Awards Best Novel nominee (1995) : Carnal Hours
Shamus Awards Best Novel nominee (1997) : Damned in Paradise
Shamus Awards Best Novel nominee (1999) : Flying Blind: A Novel about Amelia Earhart
Shamus Awards Best Novel nominee (2002) : Angel in Black

Japanese: マックス・アラン・コリンズ
or マックス・アラン コリンズ

Reviews

[Matias Cerizola · Rating 4 out of 5]

En La Línea De Fuego.- Max Allan Collins 

“Las fotos mostraban una escena familiar (la sala de estar de Leary), pero junto a la chimenea de piedra yacía un hombre vestido con traje y corbata, con la ropa, como sus miembros, retorcida. La cara no aparecía en la foto, pero Horrigan pudo imaginársela.
La garganta había sido seccionada de oreja a oreja. La sangre empapaba la camisa y la alfombra; se veía, naturalmente, negra en la foto, pero, en su mente, Horrigan la vio roja.
-Ésta es la forma que Leary tiene -añadió Coppinger- de tratar a sus amigos.”

22 de noviembre de 1963. Una fecha infame en la historia norteamericana, el presidente Kennedy es asesinado a balazos en Dallas. El agente Frank Horrigan del Servicio Secreto estuvo ahí y no pudo hacer nada, solo mirar estallar la cabeza de su jefe y todas las noches revive en pesadillas ese día. Hoy Horrigan, retirado de la custodia presidencial pero agente activo, tiene la pista de un “centinela”, un potencial asesino del presidente, El Servicio Secreto debería tomar muy en serio a este hombre. Frank Horrigan lo está haciendo.

Revisando hace un tiempo las bateas de L y L Libros en San Martín, me tope con esta linda edición tapa dura de En La Línea De Fuego, libro escrito por Max Allan Collins un excelente autor de policial negro. En ese momento no sabía que la película del ‘93 dirigida por Wolfgang Petersen se basaba en una obra de Collins, fanático yo de Eastwood, no lo dude. Matanga. Luego, internet mediante, descubrí que Collins escribió la novelización de la película, no era una historia original de él. 

Ahora bien ¿Vale la pena su lectura? Totalmente. Si te gustan las intrigas y conspiraciones a pequeña escala, toda la mitología alrededor del asesinato de Kennedy y los libros adictivos onda bestsellers, En La Línea De Fuego te va a gustar. Obviamente no vas a tener muchas sorpresas si recordas al detalle la película, pero ahí es donde entra la mano de un artesano del policial como es Max Allan Collins, su estilo narrativo le da un plus importante al libro y hace que no caiga en ser una novelización más. 

🤘🤘🤘🤘

[Gilbert Stack · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first two-thirds of this novel is filled with Griffin’s characteristic behind the scenes maneuvering—some of it in Washington, some of it on Guadalcanal, and some of it in Australia and all of it is exciting. The book checks in with most of the large cast of characters. General Pickering is in Washington with malaria and his absence leaves his team in Australia unprotected from officers more interested in advancing their careers than the mission. His son, Pick, arrives on Guadalcanal where he joins the now familiar group of pilots fighting to keep the Japanese from retaking the island and with it quite possibly winning the war in the Pacific. And the two marine Coast Watchers, each sick with half a dozen tropical diseases, get weaker and weaker as they come to accept that their superiors in the corps have written them off. Unfortunately, this is true. Their replacements are being trained, but no effort is being made to create a plan of extraction.

The scene where that changes is one of the most moving in the series this far. Recently returned from Guadalcanal and sick with malaria, Reserve General Pickering asks a simple question—when did they kick those two young men in the Coast Watchers out of the corps. His deputy gets angry at him, but the questions stand because, as Pickering was taught when he enlisted in the corps for World War I, marines don’t leave their wounded behind and Pickering is wholly determined to bring those two young men home again.

Enter Lieutenant Ken “Killer” McCoy, veteran of the first Marine Raiders mission and star of the opening novel in the series. McCoy gets the job of planning the rescue mission—and overcoming tremendous obstacles including the hostility of superior officers. Leads to unusually granular action-writing for Griffin as the reader is taken not just through the planning but through the mission itself to see if the corps really can rescue its men.

If you liked this review, you can find more at www.gilbertstack.com/reviews.

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 5 out of 5]

During the Battle of the Solomons, two coast watchers are trapped in the path of Japanese forces. A team with Captain Galloway and Lt. Ken McCoy is assembled to rescue the men. This is full of the drama of World War II in the Pacific.

[Jim Morris · Rating 5 out of 5]

WEB Griffin never wrote a book that was easy to put down, and this one is no exception. Non-stop action and impeccable authenticity. Real soldiers read him without embarrassment and wannabees read him with awe.

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this chapter of the series, more attention is to the characters' humanity involved: more empathy, more caring for others, and more partnering of friends. War seems to bring out the selfless soldiers in the foxholes and the egotism and self-centeredness of poor leadership. It is another excellent read in the series if this genre is to your liking.

[Nate · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very nice crossover for the entire story so far. One of my favorite things about the series is how every character interacts with eachother. The fact that every main character introduced thus far met together was incredibly satisfying. I can't wait to read the next one

[Sandra M. Diamanti · Rating 5 out of 5]

As far as I have read the entire series is great

Griffin writes edge of you seat book never once been disappointed. An all add o reading the Presidential Agent series also great.

[Steve Aldous · Rating 4 out of 5]

Movie novelisations were a common site on paperback shelves back in the days before home video. At the time they were the only way to relive a movie in the comfort of your own home as films would, as a rule, not be screened on TV for at least 5 years after the release date. This particular book was published in 1993 to coincide with the release of the Clint Eastwood vehicle directed by Wolfgang Petersen. The film is one of Eastwood’s very best. A taut, suspenseful and efficiently made thriller. Eastwood’s significant screen presence and charisma gave depth and likeability to a character carrying years of guilt about not having been able to prevent the assassination of President John F Kennedy in 1963.

Here, Jeff Maguire’s lean screenplay has been worked into a novel by popular pulp writer Max Allan Collins. The result is a book that is as slick as the movie. Collins’ prose style effectively captures the narrative drive of Petersen’s movie. It is told mainly from the perspective of the two protagonists – Frank Horrigan and wacko Mitch Leary, who is out to extract revenge on the US Government by killing the President. It is difficult to convey John Malkovich’s creepy performance as Leary on the printed page, but for anyone who has seen the movie the imprint of Eastwood and Malkovich will loom large over the crackling dialogue between the two characters as Leary leads Horrigan on a cat-and-mouse chase. There are one or two elements that vary from the final film presented on screen, presumably changes that had been made to Maguire’s screenplay on set, but overall this is a thoroughly entertaining and quick read that accurately captures the excitement of the movie.

[Bob Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Typical W.E.B. Griffin book. In following the series I have come to know and like the main characters. It is always interesting to see what they are doing as each book progresses. The downside to reading to reading the series with only a couple of weeks between books is that the rehashing of events does get a little tiresome. Overall I like these books, they are good escapism.

[Clem · Rating 2 out of 5]

OK. I confess. I’m officially done with this author and this particular series of his books. This book is part 5 of a 10-volume set titled “The Corps”. I enjoyed the first 4 o.k., but by the time I got to this one, I just got tired of this series in a very big way. I was actually surprised how much I was put off by this one. It’s just too much like all of his other books, and nothing ever consequential seems to happen in the story. That’s o.k. after a while, but it just hit the limit for me by this one.

I’m reminded of when I was in college and my roommate and I used to watch a popular soap opera (‘As the World Turns’). We really got into the show, but I gave up after six months because it took far too long for anything to really happen. I guess soap operas focused much more on the drama of the actors as opposed to pushing a relevant story forward. It was typical for the show to drag on with a particular plot line far too long, and instead interjected as much romance, intrigue, sinister characters, and useless arguing among the people. So even though I enjoyed the soap opera for a while, it got old quick. This is exactly how I felt while reading ‘Line of Fire’.

The story takes place in the first year of the U.S. involvement during World War II. There really isn’t even a plot here. I guess if you had to define a plot, you could say that it revolves around a few GIs who are ‘stranded’ on a Pacific island that is controlled by the Japanese. Ideally, the U.S. would love to get the soldiers off the island, but such a tactic is never as easy as it sounds. So even though this is the closest thing resembling a plot, this really isn’t the author’s focus. He cares more about the everyday interactions of the various members of the marine corps and their day-to-day lives during this tumultuous time in American history. Ironically, you never really feel like you’re reading about people in a war. Many of the interactions and situations we read about could just as likely happen within the confines of the military during peace time, so we never really feel the “thrill” of the battle. Just like a soap opera.

There’s far too many characters in these books for any reasonable reader to keep track. It doesn’t help when the author keeps introducing new ones in the new books and retains all of the older ones from the older books as well. It also doesn’t help when he introduces a character on, say page 20, and we don’t read about the character again until around page 220. These are mostly marines, so there really isn’t much difference between the bulk of the characters. They’re all “tough” guys, most with shady violent pasts (but we NEED people like that in the marines!), they all drool over any woman in a dress, and they all seem to consume a gallon of booze each day. Plus, there are a few “father and sons” as well as at least one pair of brothers. Then there’s the marine who’s dating the aunt of another marine, a few politicians (who drink even more) and gobs and gobs of women who have no problem spreading their legs for anything in a uniform.

So when we read about all of these episodes that take place more often in bars and hotel rooms than we do on the battlefield, it’s easy to get tired of such episodes when they happen over and over again. Yes, all of these escapades happen in the first four books as well, and it didn’t bother me quite that much since the episodes were still novel. As I’ve stated though, after reading book #5, it just got too old too quick for my tastes.

You do learn a lot about the comings and goings of how the military works. There’s a lot a politics that goes on in the military, and we’re exposed to a lot of nomenclature. All of this was actually quite entertaining, but as I keep saying, it simply gets old after a while.

So I’m officially done. I have the feeling that the remainder of these books in the series won’t be much different, so I’ll look for something else to occupy my reading time. No great loss.

[Christopher Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

So the saga continues....

Line of Fire is the mid point in W.E.B. Griffin's series, The Corps. I must admit that although I have liked the first five books, they are not exactly what I expected. The series has not been so much about the actions of the Marine Corps in battle, but the lives of the characters with WWII happening in the background. There are large doses of mundane every day life with some posturing among the ranks thrown in to remind you the lives are those of proud military personas. Of course, there are moments centered around some battlefield action, but it is mostly just filler to let you know a particular engagement has taken place.

Line of Fire takes place in mid to late 1942. The US military has established a presence on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands located in the South Pacific Ocean. The story flips between Guadalcanal, Australia, Washington D.C. and a little place called Buka at the northern end of the Solomon Islands chain.

Buka is central to the story as plans are put into place to relieve personnel who have been stationed there for an extended period of time. The plan has a low probability of success, but Marines do not leave their brothers behind.

As usual, Griffin's dialog between characters is quite good. We the reader always feel a part of the scene even if it is sitting in a comfy recliner in the corner while munching on some popcorn and watching the bevy of character dramas unfold. There have been so many characters introduced throughout the series, sometimes it is hard to keep up with the chain of command, not to mention who is sleeping with who. Whether real or fiction for the time period the level of promiscuity presented in these novels is eye opening. It is hard to imagine my grand-parents being so randy as the people in the story. Despite the many characters, they are developed enough to gain a bond with the reader. It will be difficult to see one or more them fall to the sword of war.

So, if you like a bit of drama with a WWII setting give this series a read.

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somewhat slow and not much action in this book. I realize that the author of an extended series such as this one has to keep in mind that a reader might be new to the book series. That is probably why Mr. Griffin feels that he must be repetitively recapping characters' backgrounds. Well, one can allow these things to slide by, especially if the novel is compellingly absorbing.
There is a lot of building up to the finale, which should have been, could have been more detailed , more exciting. It is hard to understand how a novel of the USMC fighting a crucial, pivotal battle in the early Pacific war can seem only the background for a more important war: string-pulling , using one's influence to get preferences and managing love affairs.
Not bad, but a bit disappointing. If it had not been a part of this series, it would have beenlucky to get two stars

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Griffin's Corps series is full of Marine bureaucracy, World War II history, Marine practices/policies and training. An exciting plan is put into play to relieve a small group of coastwatchers, and it is an interesting and clever plan. However, Griffin gives it, as he does almost all of the actual action, a very short description, glossing over the action while gloating that the plan worked.

Griffin knows how to create an interesting and historical plot, a clandestine operation in the planning stages.. but he absolutely fumbles when it comes to describing the operation-- simply feeling clever that he figured out a way to get these people relieved.

The novel and series is interesting, but this is the fifth book in the series... and out of approximately 1800 pages, only 20-40 pages are anything more than planning, arguing, etc.

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm giving this four stars because it was better than the previous entry but maybe really three and a half stars. The story pops all over the place. I'm not sure there were two chapters in a row that dealt with the same situation. Plus there was Griffin's incessant need for backstory. We got a refresher course all the way back to the first book in the series at one point.
This had a lot more action and adventure that the previous one. Daring Marines defending Guadalcanal because it has to be done. Key McCoy once again plays a large part as does Pick Pickering. There's a lot to do with the coast watchers who played an incredibly important role during the war as well the Marine creed of not leaving men behind if at all possible. I enjoyed this one.

[DanielL · Rating 5 out of 5]

LINE OF FIRE (Book 5) faithfully follows "The Corp" book series 1-4. As with the other books in the series, except SEMPER FI (Book 1), the storyline bounces between Australia to Washington D.C. and places in-between. Most of the major characters remain and some minor characters are introduced. Sometimes it’s hard to remember the significance of some of the minor characters if the reader takes a break between reading the series.

The primary storyline of LINE OF FIRE is the on-going combat on Guadalcanal and the rescue of coastwatchers on an enemy controlled island. Overall, LINE OF FIRE is one of the best in the series.

[D. Jane Akins · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting read

But confusing for someone with no military training. The book contains lots of military jargon, which is explained but it does make parts of it difficult to read. That being said, it is a well-written book that is about World War II in the Pacific, which you don’t read as much about as you do about the European theater. If you are sensitive to cursing then I don’t recommend the book for you. Having lived with a sailor for 50+ years, I know that it’s realistic, particularly in war time. This is a very interesting historical novel.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

The fifth in the W.E.B. Griffin "The Corps" series, and one of my favorite series from all his works...Along the lines of Jeff Shaara, Griffin, through meticulous research, provides both the large-scale and small-scale history of the USMC from just before the outbreak of WWII the efforts maintain control of Guadalcanal, so far...New recruits, Old China Hands, Mustangs, flying noncoms and the highest levels of government and the branches of the military all provide the great stories of our Greatest Generation...Love it!!!

[wally · Rating 3 out of 5]

finished 7th april 2025 good read three stars i liked it nothing less nothing more kindle library loaner the corps #5 have read most of the corps series not in order i've yet to read #1 and i don't know how many others are left. have read more than a dozen from griffin w.e.b. maybe seventeen total all good reads. entertaining, they are based on history and you know how that story ends if it ever does so would that be a spoiler? i've #6 open and ready to go.

[William Whitman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm biased

From the first time I read my first WEB Griffin book I was hooked. I think he tells his stories better than most. This story tells of several different soldiers but in a way that that comes together and you don't have to worry that you will lose the story line. Very enjoyable.

[Robert Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Typical W.E.B. Griffin book. In following the series I have come to know and like the main characters. It is always interesting to see what they are doing as each book progresses. The downside to reading to reading the series with only a couple of weeks between books is that the rehashing of events does get a little tiresome. Overall I like these books, they are good escapism.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been slowly reading through The Corps series. So far this one is my favorite. It's very exciting. I just can't get enough of these characters. And this one is a great example of one of the best things about Marines--the way they stick together and don't leave anyone behind. This book is all about a rescue. And it was terrific. Very exciting.

[Ann M. Holmes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intense series

This is probably the 3rd or 4th time I have read this series. Actually, my husband has read the series the same number of times. We both enjoyed Griffin's series on the Army and police as much. If you enjoy following remarkable characters, and reading storylines that keep you turning pages, you'll enjoy Griffin's books. Have to grab book #5 now...

[Billie Bogart · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series is a great read, but you should start from the beginning as it is really just one long story. I love all the military detail. You’ll like the books if you liked John Wayne war movies. It captures an idealized culture where men are men and women are accessories.

[Mike Waugh · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I liked the plot of this book, it was my least favorite book of the first quarter. There were, in my opinion, too many characters with similar names, and the story jumped from one character to another, which became confusing to me. Anyone looking for a war book should consider this book.

[Kevin DaVee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, it is basically a male romance novel for white baby boomers...but sometimes a treat with no nutritional value is what you need. I will say this, Griffin's understanding of the bureaucratic realities of the military service is quite good.

[Richard Guerrero · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best, love the characters in the story in the history. Don’t know how the translator, Mrs. Fessler, is still in the game, need to get rid of her. She’s a cancer in their department. Religious hypocrite there. I’m from Northern California, loved the fly under at the Golden Gate bridge.

[Glenn Gray · Rating 2 out of 5]

So many characters! More devotion to the interaction between ranks and personalities than to action. Author seems to want to follow the Tom Clancy model of lots of detail, but Clancy’s details are technical and Griffin’s details are about procedures and personal interactions. Very confusing!

[T.R. McNeely · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book!

From the beginning you almost like you are on the sidelines! If you have read any history about the war this book uses what really happened along with story to make an enjoyable read!

[Bryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The books in this series are defantly NOT stands alone. Each installment flows directly into the next. They should be read in order and back to back. Sounds like quite a commitment, with 10 books in the series. However, these books are so compelling that the process is pure joy. On to the next!

[David Clevinger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Read

The author puts a lot of research into the books that he writes about World War II in a series which I really appreciate it helps to let you know what went on and how the Marines were fighting.