Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 15, 1990 TAG: 9007180065
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE MAYO BOOK PAGE EDITOR
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"Stinger" is Doug Hornig's follow-up to "Waterman." It's not really a sequel - this is a more conventional espionage adventure - but it features the same protagonist, disillusioned CIA agent Steven Kirk.
The premise is frightening and all-too-believable. What would happen if a shipment of Stinger missiles were stolen by a terrorist organization and aimed at American commercial aircraft? Stingers are the most deadly and user-friendly ground-to-air missiles in the world. They're easily hidden, easily moved. In the hands of someone ruthless enough to use them, they could cripple air traffic.
Hornig's plot is set mostly in Washington, D.C., and the Caribbean. It involves the byzantine politics of Central America and CIA involvement. At times, the twists become so complicated that the story is hard to follow, but Hornig ties up all the loose ends. In the wake of the Iran-Contra fiasco, even the wildest elements don't seem improbable.
Perhaps the most terrifying element of the whole thing is the presidency that Hornig has conceived: a fictionalized Reagan-Quayle administration. If demands were made for substantial reparations to Nicaragua, how far would such a conservative White House go to protect the public?
At its best, the novel sketches in the intricate weave of loyalty and treachery at work in both legitimate government and the quasi-legal realm of a "shadow" government. At its worst the narrative becomes bogged in the props and mechanics of the genre. Hornig has done his homework; the physical details ring true. There are just too many of them at times.
That said, "Stinger" is still a well-crafted story based on universal human emotions and a plausible '90s nightmare.
by CNB