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Countdown (Kirk McGarvey, #2)

David Hagberg

Why we're reading this: Second entry in the McGarvey series and which laid down the formula. Self loathing badass assassin and st…more
[close] Second entry in the McGarvey series and which laid down the formula. Self loathing badass assassin and stereotypical love interest out of a Fleming novel go up against a crazed extremist, in this case a General who has Gorbachev on his hit list.

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Sep 04, 2013 Samuel rated it liked it

COUNTED OUT

David Hagberg. Now how should we classify his books? I would say espionage pulp fiction. They play to almost every cliché that has gone out of date and aren't as well researched as later authors like Brad Taylor and Stephen England. Basically his books are the result the sexism of Ian Fleming and the technology extravaganza of Tom Clancy coming together. Over 18 books and many of the more unpleasant and dated aspects of his work have increasingly been played down or disappeared all to COUNTED OUT

David Hagberg. Now how should we classify his books? I would say espionage pulp fiction. They play to almost every cliché that has gone out of date and aren't as well researched as later authors like Brad Taylor and Stephen England. Basically his books are the result the sexism of Ian Fleming and the technology extravaganza of Tom Clancy coming together. Over 18 books and many of the more unpleasant and dated aspects of his work have increasingly been played down or disappeared all together. Here however, book number two in the Kirk Mcgarvey series, not so much. Now to the review. What happens when the man running the USSR'S security apparatus in the 1990's attempts to destroy Glasnost before it's set to be implemented?

The story is this. A KGB officer locates and verifies the existence of Israel's nuclear arsenal. The soldiers guarding the facility where it is situated manage to blow the man away with their UZI's but not before he gets word to the KGB director general about his discovery. Days later Arkady Kurshin, the KGB's resident hitman infiltrates Ramstein airbase and crashes out of it driving a nuclear missiles transport truck. He attempts to launch it at Israel from the heart of West Berlin but a last second intervention by former CIA shooter Kirk McGarvey saves the day. As a result of this failure, the KGB director general activates another plan, one which revolves around a big black US Navy submarine and how to hijack it and acquire the nuclear warheads it carries.

PLOT:
Very methodical and easy to follow. the basis of a format the future counter-terrorist thriller sub-genre would follow can be seen here. Action is serviceable. Nothing fancy or memorable. Plot twists are very predictable as well. The writing style is punchy and does the job but quite a bit of the dialogue is just simply corny. The threat of the novel hasn't aged well and can no longer be classified as "plausible". Just sit back and let the story take you for a ride back to a simpler time of glasnost paranoia.

CHARACTERS:
Bad. Very bad. They do not hold up well at all. First, there are the CIA officials. Highly unlikable, slightly bland, and while professing their loathing of the main character and their contempts of him and the work he does, still make use of him (a theme which may get explored further when I review these books).
Then, there is the main character himself, Kirk McGarvey. he's unlikable but in a different way.

But first, the good. Mitch Rapp, Scott Harvath and the first generation of counter-terrorist operative and killers constantly get portrayed to James Bond. That comparison is not valid. They are in fact the descendants of McGarvey. A rogue operative who kills and sacrifices his happiness for the United States and constantly gets shafted by politicians and bureaucrats. He is the progenitor of the post-9/11 espionage characters that come later. Watching him in this book and making comparison to contemporary spy thriller characters is fun to do. Now for the bad. McGarvey is a borderline passive aggressive sexist. Much of his behavior around women would be considered borderline unacceptable in this day and age. Mitch Rapp and Jack Bauer for all their brutality are polite and professional around the women in their lives and would never do the sort of things McGarvey does in this book and a few of the later ones.

But while McGarvey at least gets to do something in the book, we have to suffer the cliché "disposable woman/one book love interest" Dr Abbott. Mr Hagberg rehashes the old kabuki dance where the female character just can't stand the main character but after he saves her life, simply wants to throw everything away and throw herself at him. I did not feel sorry for her when two KGB bully-boys paid her a visit.

There was only one character who managed to gain my respect. Arkady Kurshin, the KGB hitman who is tasked with setting the Middle East ablaze. Sure, he's utterly insane and yes, he's a paid up antagonist. But he approached his work with way more professionalism than McGarvey did (he doesn't get distracted by a stupid love affair while on the job) and manages to stay one step ahead, unlike his boss. Arkady only slipped up when he couldn't dodge the knife thrown at him. But even then, he returns to make an even bigger splash in the sequel of this book.

So, my verdict on Countdown. It's a thriller which belongs in the time it was made in. Like the dinosaur carcass at a museum. It uses every cliché in the book and is sexist as hell but snatches a three star rating by having a well structured plot, a reasonably engaging writing style and a very good secondary antagonist. Read it so you can see how, many elements which would later become common place in the 21st century spy thriller genre came to be developed and how far the spy thriller genre has moved on from many tropes which now days look dated, stale and quite laughable.

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