by Saul Herzog
The Target is third installment in Herzog’s Lance Spector series of thrillers. I’m a fan of the genre as writers in Herzog’s vein (I’m thinking Michael Crichton, Tom Clancy, and perhaps Jack Carr and Mark Greaney) seem to be “ahead of the times,” or maybe it is just that they have their ears more close to the ground of international relations.
Lance Spector is an unlikely hero, almost a hero of antiheroes. It’s not that he lacks courage or skills; those are his in abundance. He floats along until his inner voice of justice overwhelms his personal faults (they are many) or temporarily ease the weight of the massive chip he carries on his shoulder.
Book one in the series, The Asset, got my attention. It was good. Book two, an overall strong story, still felt like the sophomoric slump, and volume three was heading toward the sadistic. Seriously?! Did I really need an antagonist so evil he got his jollies skinning alive animals and people? I almost put it down — and I rarely don’t finish a book. But Herzog rebounded (in my opinion), and the ending was delightfully superb.
Will I tackle volume 4? Oh . . . probably! Lance should be dead several times over, but alas, the pen is mightier than the sword . . . and curiosity.
