Monday, September 1, 2014

Global Predator by Jack Maclean

Global Predator has a double meaning in this novel.  First there are the American's and their Predator air force that is bringing lots of hurt on the Taliban and other terrorist around the world. A Predator can fly anywhere for long periods of time without having a pilot on board. It can take images, live video feeds and linger for hours / days on end to allow the intelligence community to make decisions about what they want to target or whom they want to target.

Now let's talk about another Predator, a Financial Genius Predator.  Grosvenor Bank has hired a man named Wilkens who is a Physics major and mathematical whiz.  He develops an algorithm that allows the bank to manipulate the marketplace and produce profits far outweighing anything they have ever done.  But he is a Predator in that he also has used the banks money to do trades for his own profit that have generated millions of profit that is going into his private account while using the Bank's money as the capital.  They don't even know it.

Now for other types of Predator's, there are the Taliban leaders in Pakistan that are terrorizing local villages and preying on the people for food, shelter, weapons and power.  They are attacking and closing or burning schools that have been set up to teach girls how to read and write.  These schools are being built, funded, and run by a British woman, Sally, who is dedicated to seeing the girls get educated.

All forces come together in Pakistan to bring about an interesting set of circumstances that draw all the predators into the Swat Valley where the U.S. Military is trying to kill two terrorist, Maulana Fazlullah and Ayman al-Zawahiri.  These two men are top leaders in the terrorist movement.  But they are also in the Swat Valley and Sally and Wilkens will come across them in their pursuit of educating young girls.

As the tension grows who will be the one to bring death and destruction upon Sally, Wilkens and the schools for girls?  Will it be the U.S. Military and their drone program, or will it be Maulana Fazlullah and the local Taliban or Ayman al-Zawahiri and the global Taliban group?

Maclean has a good writing style and provides a good interesting story and plot line. He is British and that causes a bit of a problem.  His English is not the same as American English.  So, some terms are a bit different and cause you to have to read more carefully.

The reason for only 4 stars and not 5 is the difference in English and also the lack of a good editor to catch the typo's and double word use and the repeated words in a sentence.  It seems to me that the publisher needs to get a better proofreader.

While distracting those things do not take away from the good story line.

Enjoy!

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