Book Review: Plunder

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Plunder     Amazon US PB Amazon Canada PB
Chet Cunningham
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Techno Thriller
Series: The Specialists # 1
Bantam, Dec 1999, $5.99, 320 pp.

In Kettering, England lies Castle Baldemere, the home of American billionaire J. August Marshall. Although reasonably famous for his entrepreneurial successes and his philanthropic donations of money and time, Marshall is better known in the gray world inhabited by spies and secret agents. For a decade, Marshall headed up the CIA, but quit when he felt his agency had too many bosses pulling its strings for personal advantage.

Marshall formed an elite counter-terrorist organization THE SPECILAISTS that consists of six agents who will do whatever is needed to complete the job. Currently, the group is in Berlin investigating why George, a cross-country motorcyclist, had an accident while riding his bike. George was seeking information on the person who accepted a bribe to get his Jewish grandfather into Switzerland in 1942. The team learns that a special German squad made millions in exchange to spiriting people out of Nazi Germany. These bribes allowed this group to start businesses just after the war. Today their companies make up twenty-five percent of the Germany's economy. The SPECILAISTS have two goals: (1) Obtain reparations for the descendants of the ripped-off Jews; and (2) Stop the appointment of one of them from being named Minister of Finance.

THE SPECIALISTS: PLUNDER reads more like an episode of the TV show Mission Impossible. The story centers on six individuals with no government sanctioning going up against seemingly impossible odds to right a wrong. Except for a bit on Marshall, the other characters (team members, the German bribe squad, and the victims) never are developed. Readers who want action, action, and more action will not miss that at all because Chet Cunningham provides that and even more excitement.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner