Publishers Weekly
06/22/2015
At the start of Coughlin and Davis’s middling eighth Sniper novel (after 2014’s On Scope), Marine Corps Sgt. Kyle Swanson faces off against a Somali warlord, Gen. Mohammed Farrah Hassan Aidid, and Aidid’s giant assassin, Omar Jama (aka the Cobra), in Mogadishu in 1992. Flash forward to 2014, and Kyle is out of the Marine Corps but still battling the forces of evil, now as a CIA officer. He’s again head-to-head against the Cobra, who he thought was seriously damaged and imprisoned back in Somalia. The Cobra implements an attack on the Mall USA, “the largest shopping mall in North America,” and Kyle must use all his many skills to stay alive to thwart it. Series fans will find, as usual, that the fight scenes are razor sharp and that the romantic interludes and Kyle’s mental quirks are simply something to put up with until the writers get to the good stuff. Agent: Jim Hornfischer, Hornfischer Literary Management. (Aug.)
From the Publisher
Kyle Swanson returns for his boldest and best adventure yet. . . . Coughlin and Davis' series only gets better with each installment. Series fans will devour this one, but new readers will enjoy it just as much, as knowledge of prior novels in the series is not required. A great military thriller for anyone with a little time to kill.” —Booklist (starred review) on Time to Kill
“The latest Kyle Swanson sniper thriller might be the best yet. . . . Quickly paced and tightly written, this one is a definite winner for all fans of the military action thriller.” —Booklist on Running the Maze
“Coughlin and Davis (An Act of Treason, 2011, etc.) hit the action-adventure 10-ring again.” —Kirkus Reviews on Running the Maze
“Will leave readers cheering.” —Publishers Weekly on Clean Kill
“The latest Kyle Swanson sniper thriller might be the best yet. . . . Quickly paced and tightly written, this one is a definite winner.” —Booklist on Running the Maze
“Coughlin and Davis hit the action-adventure 10-ring again.” —Kirkus Reviews on Running the Maze
“A strong and compelling narrative. Coughlin and Davis have concocted another winner that should only encourage a growing readership. ” —Booklist on Clean Kill
Library Journal
08/01/2015
Tough-talking marine sniper Kyle Swanson is back in his eighth outing (after On Scope). More than 20 years following Swanson's assignment in Somalia, he is sent back to Mogadishu to eliminate the assassin called the Cobra. Ever since his prison release, the Cobra has been stalking those responsible for his 20-year incarceration with the intent to destroy them as well as terrorize the United States. Colleagues of Cobra's have been established in the States to encourage disenfranchised male youths to join the extremists in the fight against America. VERDICT For new readers, the first third of the book presents a solid background, setting the stage for the current action. But some may be discombobulated by the chaotic, separate clashes that take place simultaneously among the adversaries; still, series fans will find the end results worth it.
Kirkus Reviews
2015-06-01
Marine Corps gunner Kyle Swanson saves the world from yet another band of terrorists. In the eighth volume of retired Marine sniper Coughlin and Davis' series (On Scope, 2014, etc.), Swanson gets a new piece of back story: during the 1990s, he served in a military hospital in Somalia, where he found love with an Irish nurse. Just as she accepted his marriage proposal, she was killed in a raid by Somalian warlord Omar Jama, alias the Cobra, whom Swanson captured and sent to prison. For reasons that are never explained, the Cobra walks free 20 years later, still seething with hatred for America in general and Swanson in particular. Now leading his own group of terrorists, the Cobra turns up in Minneapolis and carries out the deadliest attack on U.S. soil since 9/11, killing 500 civilians in a shopping-mall bombing. Kyle has to chase his quarry back to Somalia and revisit the scene of the original attack, but there's no suspense about the outcome. Previous volumes of the Swanson series gave the hero some moral ambiguity and made him more three-dimensional, but that's not the case here, as the story is drawn in stark black and white. The good guys stand tall and are invariably football fans; the bad guys say things like "I intend to put ‘terror' back into the word ‘terrorism.' " Much like Swanson's dispatch of the Cobra, the book's execution is precise and well-practiced, and a bit too routine.
