Top Hook

By Gordon Kent

Book Overview

The Alan Craik novels have earned GORDON KENT electrifying praise for their breakneck pace and raw emotion, as well as for some of the most remarkable heroes--and villains--in fiction today. Now U.S. Navy Officer Craik is back in action, all because one man, fueled by anger, ambition, and pain, has ignited an explosive chain of events that threatens not only two good careers, but world peace itself....

TOP HOOK

It's springtime in Newport and Alan Craik and his wife, Rose Siciliano, are on top of the world. She's headed for astronaut training; he's going into an espionage school. Parents, pilots, lovers, and loyal navy officers through and through, the husband-and-wife team are eager to take the next step. Then it all comes crashing down.

In a Virginia suburb of D.C., a senior CIA man has committed a series of clandestine acts that have led him into the most dangerous place he has ever been. Now George Shreed's dark secret is in danger--and a woman is demanding a million dollars in exchange for her silence. Shreed's next desperate move is to find someone to take the blame for the information he himself leaked. The fall guy will be a woman: Rose Siciliano.

Suddenly, an investigation targets Rose, and, by association, her husband, Alan. And as a circle of treachery tightens around them, events race out of anyone's control. In command of an airborne unit on the USS Thomas Jefferson in Trieste, Alan is contacted by the same woman who is blackmailing Shreed. Soon he is being pulled into a vortex of spies and counterspies while a series of stunning escalations take his high-tech airborne attachment--and the world--to the brink of war.

In the most dangerous region on earth, Alan Craik is crashing through forbidden airspace to find a spy, code-named "Top Hook," whose act of betrayal is more complex--and chilling--than anyone can guess.

From the deafening roar of jet fighters launching off an aircraft carrier to nerve-shattering clandestine meetings in Turkey, North Africa, and Pakistan, Top Hook is a relentless turbocharged ride--and the best work yet from the most original writer in military adventure today.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0440237491
• ISBN13: 9780440237495
• Release Date: March 2003
• Publisher: Bantam Dell
• Length: 574 Pages
• Weight: 0.64 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 4.2" x 7.0"

Customer Reviews

a good book for snow day

I found this book very entertaining. it was the first Kent book I've read and plan on reading more of his work.

Well paced Thriller

This is a well plotted thriller that keeps you wondering right up to the end. There are plenty of action scenes, and a good deal of carrier off the deck sequences in the book. The writers' naval experience shows. Basically, everything is going great for the Craiks (for about 50 pages), then the government goes after both of them with a vengeance. I think that once the government comes after you though, it is pretty hard to get things turned around. There will always be that taint and suspicion lurking in the background. Who knows maybe that is what the authors plan for the future. A very pleasant read.

Good Stuff

This is the third in the Alan Craik stories and while you don't have to read the previous two, I would suggest that Peacemaker would be worth reading first.Fast paced, perhaps the authors have spent less time on the characters and more on the action, and this works if you feel comfortable with the characters from previous novels. If, however, this is your first Craik novel then you might find that the characters are glossed over and the authors assume you understand the relationships.Having said that, an in context of the three novels, I enjoyed this and look forward to more.

Top Hook is the best Gordon Kent book yet!

This was my favorite of the three Gordon Kent novels. It has excellent action sequences and a wonderful air of suspense. Read Rules of Engagement and Peacemaker as well. The three books are chronological and I would read them in order. Top Hook is filled with great high-tech action, devious spying, a great international chase, and one of the best concluding battles I have ever read.

shoot em up thrill a paragraph

Everything looks great to Alan Craik and his spouse Rose Siciliano. The CIA appears ready to tap him for a highly regarded espionage position and the astronaut school has accepted Rose. Much faster than their rise to the top is their collapse caused by the machinations of someone else.A woman in Venice blackmails CIA treasonous mole George Shreed. Panicking and already over the edge with his wife near death from cancer, George needs a fall guy who would have been on the project but not quite visible and with little protection to dub as the double agent selling secrets to the Chinese. He selects Rose. His covert actions lead the CIA to stop the promotions of Craik and Siciliano pending the results of an investigation into the activities of the duo. Their careers come to a halt but refusing to idly sit by as the taint of treason is painted on them, Alan and Rose begin their own inquiries into what short circuited their lives.The third Craik-Siciliano thriller is loaded with action, action, and more action somewhat at the cost of character development. The story line emphasizes the shoot em up thrill a paragraph that never slows down, but for new readers Alan and Rose never seem quite real. Strangely the double agent is probably the most complete player in the tale as the audience understands his fears, doubts, and motives. Fans who enjoy an energizing espionage thriller will want to read Gordon Kent's latest global stimulating novel.Harriet Klausner