Title: The Last Operative
Author: Jerry B. Jenkins
Publisher: Tyndale House
Publish Date: July, 2010
Hardcover, 350 pages
ISBN 10: 1414309058
ISBN 13: 9781414309057
Jordan Kettering wants to go quietly into the sunset. His career as an NSA intelligence officer has taken a significant toll. His two adult children are little more than distant acquaintances. His wife has been patient and supportive, but he knows she has deserved better. That was part of the reason they were going to London. He wanted her to see Europe like a tourist. But that was before he was given intelligence information during the recent mission to Germany. The threat is grave—bigger than 9/11. And the risk is compounded by the fact that someone inside the NSA is involved. The most hidden place in Kettering’s past will have to be unmasked in order to meet the challenges of this mission.
My Take: According to the author's note, this book is a thorough re-telling of his first stand-alone novel, "The Operative", rewritten and updated for today's audience. He also poses a question to the reader about the dialogue, which is not weighed down with "he said" this and "she said" that. To answer the question: yes, the dialogue worked. I never had a problem differentiating who was speaking.
Jordan is an NSA operative, suddenly called to Germany for an assignment that could have been handled by anyone else. One of the higher-ups, Stu, surprises him by requesting a secret meeting, where he is told of the presence of a nuclear threat within the United States and the strict certainty that someone high within the NSA is involved.
Jordan is puzzling over this when he goes to meet his wife at Heathrow airport where they are supposed to embark on a long-overdue vacation. Suddenly gunfire erupts as the passengers are disembarking, and it becomes clear that someone wanted Jordan dead. A day later, Stu IS dead, the victim of an apparent suicide. Now it is up to Jordan and his mentor, Chuck, to find out how to stop nuclear missiles from entering the United States, who is behind it, and who in the NSA is involved. After years of faithful work and service, Jordan suddenly finds everything he's done being questioned and his allegiance to the NSA is on shaky ground.
I WANTED to like this book. There's faith, and family, and a seemingly good spy story. But I didn't feel what I was supposed to feel, which is involved with the characters. It felt like a sketch that still needed to be shaded in. There WAS a point shortly after page 200 where the action becomes more intense and fully-fleshed, then it was back to the surface sketches. I found it unbelievable that more than 20 years after a youthful indiscretion, Jordan would still be guilt-ridden about it. I also found it less than believable that he would have ended this youthful relationship in the fashion that he did if he truly loved that person. Even the anger that his son feels towards him doesn't read as real. There's a twist when we find out who is the inside guy at NSA, but there are enough hints early on that most of us will have already figured it out.
All in all, it was an OK read, but nothing to re-read, at least not for me.
QUOTES:
For the first time, Jordan resented his own training. He envied others their grief and fear. Such open honest, human, unchecked emotions.
"Chuck, I feel like I'm leaning over a gas tank with a cigarette in my lips."
"Comforting. Two decades apart, a few hours to mend fences, and we exit as kamikazes."
BOOK RATING: 3 out of 5 stars
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Disclosure: This is a review of my personal copy.
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