Ninth in the Destroyer series.

Remo tangles with a national network of cops who essentially assassinate hardened criminals who cannot be taken into justice any other way. Isn't that kind of what Remo himself does? They're really hard to trace because (1) they're cops and know what they're doing and (2) they use out-of-towners to do the actual jobs (e.g., cops from Atlanta might do a job in New York City, while the NYC branch might kill someone in Chicago, etc.). Remo is reluctant to get involved because he has a real aversion to killing cops, being a former beat cop himself. He is also obviously sympathetic with their goals. His reluctance is ameliorated because, as it turns out, the guy organizing the group seeks political power and plans to use his fellow cops to aid his own quest for power. That confrontation was the weakest part of the book -- it just ends up being kind of lame.

I can't say that this was one actively bad, it just didn't grab me at all. The premise is a good one, I would have just liked to see it better executed and the ultimate goals of the killer cops just seems kind of tacked on. It's just kind of lackluster; there are better Destroyer novels out there.

Review copyright 2008 J. Andrew Byers ( )