Venezuela is a very bad place to be for Americans, if this book is to be believed. Based on my other readings about the country, sadly I do believe it. Once a thriving country, rich because of its oil and a thriving economy, it is now a solid dictatorship rife with corruption and crime. So, Caracas is the perfect place for an AWOL’d soldier escaping the Taliban to be found. But what is his real motive and what is America’s for Venezuela? CID officers Brody and Taylor are sent first to Caracas to find and apprehend him and they follow his tracks deep into the jungle—both places, Caracas and the jungle, are characters as much as the people and as likely to kill them. Action-packed but also a lot of “telling” about back stories and repetition that gets a bit numbing. Still a good read that likely accurately portrays a country in serious distress.

I love me some DeMille (or should I say DeMilles?), and this one was no exception. Although, it felt unfinished to me. Did Flagstaff just disappear cuz the two main players caught their end? What happens between Brodie and Taylor? How do they get out of Venezuela, and so on and so far. Don’t leave a book open ended, I need to know! ( )

I worry when established writers take their protagonists out of the country. Usually, I suspect it is because they want to be able to write off a trip to some country they've always had a hankering to visit so they do in order to collect local color for the book. But Venezuela? Why would anyone want to go to a country on the verge of ruin and chaos -- at least that's the way it's described in this extended travelogue.

Scott Brodie and Maggie Taylor, both CID officers, (think Paul Brenner and Cynthia Sunhill from the General's Daughter with whom they bear striking similarities in looks and speech) need to go undercover to Venezuela to bring back a Captain Kyle Mercer who deserted his unit and committed some heinous crimes in Afghanistan. He has now been seen by a less than reliable witness in Venezuela in a brothel for underage girls in the slums of Caracas. Clearly, the Army has way, way too much money if it were to indulge in such a risky venture, kidnap (or kill) this guy Mercer.

I really admire many things about Venezuela, the foremost being the conductor Dudamel and the truly magnificent Youth orchestra and high school music programs. That is not the country of this book and I found the plot to be a mish-mash of plot holes. I did like the Paul Brenner-like banter of the thinly disguised Brodie. Why invent a new character when you already had one on the books? (Perhaps because he wrote this with his son, Alex DeMille, another puzzler, the way to get his son a head start in the writier's market.)

I have read (or listened to) several DeMille and enjoyed the Brenner and Corey characters. I was disappointed in this one and certainly won't read the The Cuban Affair, which other readers have described as being similar in its travelogue nature. I enjoy reading the history and current affairs of other countries be they failed or successful; I also enjoy a good mystery/thriller/police procedural like the General's Daughter (5 stars); I do not enjoy one that succeeds at neither. ( )

Captain Kyle mercer of the Army's Delta force disappears from his station in Afghanistan. A video surfaces that shows that Mercer has deserted. He is spotted a year later in a very dangerous section of Venezuela. Scott Brody and Maggie Taylor are tasked with the job of bringing the deserter back to the United States for trial.
This book is so DeMille. It is fast paced, thrilling and brilliant! DeMille fans will not be disappointed. It is filled with twists and turns, double crosses, politics, and believable characters. A nail biting adventure. a must read! ( )

Riveting, detailed, but interesting story of two military intelligence agents assigned with the task of finding a military deserter....deep in South America. The dialogue between the male and female investigatory carries the repartee of characters in other DeMille books...funny, witty, edgy. The plot excellent as well as the geographic descriptions. This was written by father and son....I wonder who did what...plot, writing, etc. ( )