Gauntlet by Richard Aaron

Gauntlet by Richard Aaron
Thriller

There are many threads in this thriller about an inclement terrorist attack that eventually find a way to weave themselves together.

There is the government intelligence centre TTIC where Hamilton Turbee works, a computer genius that is autistic. His boss is a jerk who only cares to climb to the top, pushing anything out of his way. When he's put on the case of stolen explosives (Semtex), Turbee does his best to track it down.

There is also Yoseff, an Afghani drug lord who's planning his next way to make millions of dollars. This includes stealing a few tonnes of Semtex plotting a way to destroy something in America. The amount of planning and thought that needs to be put into this is incredible.

Finally, we have Indy and Catherine, two RCMP officers from British Columbia that are chasing pot and heroin that somehow keeps going through the border, down into the USA. They end up way over their heads when they finally find the transfer point and see what exactly is being transferred.

This book carefully plots out each move in an elaborate scheme. You learn about the characters in present and past. However, even when you're 1/2 way through the book, you're learning of how the characters grew up to be like they are. I felt like we should have had enough information at this time to know about the characters, rather than continuing to learn about their past.

Gauntlet ends with quite a page turner, however I was left feeling a little cheated because the book sort of stopped, rather than ended.

First Line: "So just how big a crater will it make if we blow up 660 tonnes of Semtex?"

Rating:

(4/5)