Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 7, 1991 TAG: 9104110005
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: D-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Reviewed by ROBERT HILLDRUP
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
G. Gordon Liddy, for those with short memories, was one of the macho men of President Nixon's Watergate debacle. Now, Liddy is a novelist. If he had started earlier, he might have been in less trouble with the law and more successful in his career, for this is an interesting and generally well-done book.
Michael Stone is a small-town New York lawyer, moderately successful in his civil practice, who gets a wee-hours call from the sister of an old friend. Sis, it seems, has been arrested for meddling with the affairs of a giant German-owned chemical manufacturer, the town's largest employer. Sis is one of these anthropomorphic animal-rights freaks who doesn't want to swat a mosquito, kill a flea or eat a hamburger. Well, maybe not quite . . .
Stone is a former Navy SEAL, and he is longing for his old career, having been put out to pasture because of a minor hearing loss. Before things are over, he and his buddies from times gone lay waste to the neo-Nazis of the chemical plant, account for an international terrorist and rescue a fair maiden who doesn't even know she's been taken hostage.
They also manage to save New York City, which is the only questionable act in the book.
All of this could have been turned into caricature and cartoon by a less-skillful writer, but Liddy makes his characters believable and his story fast-paced and riveting.
The love scenes are not standard; the terrorist is on the surface quite a likable guy; Liddy even builds the first sensible case I have yet encountered for not using animals in lab experiments. If his information is accurate, the real animal-rights people ought to pick up on it.
There are some holes in the story, such as why the cops aren't called earlier, even if they are crooked, and how a big chemical plant doing such evil things doesn't have anything better in the way of security.
Liddy also takes this SEAL business a bit too far. Granted, these guys can go places and do things under stress most of us can't imagine, but they're still human, as their troubles in both the Grenada and Panama campaigns showed. Liddy gilds their lily.
On balance, though, "The Monkey Handlers" is a top-of-the-line contemporary thriller with characters you'll remember and some you'll even care about. Gordon Liddy may just have found something he's really good at.
Robert Hilldrup is a Richmond writer and former newspaperman.
by CNB