Irrevocable Resolution

Irrevocable Resolution by Al Dugan reads like an installment in an action-movie series. This is number two. There are deep-cover spy assignments by a CIA operative, Alan Joubert. Alan is former Marine Recon and makes short work of multitudinous bad guys while under deep cover as an executive for an oceanic insurance company. Unfortunately for him, he trip-wires people who can work out that he is the one responsible and a major part of the book is Alan and his handlers attempting to keep him under deep cover. There are gun battles, hand-to-hand combat, gorgeous and seductive women, and even an Achilles heel for Alan as he facilitates his country’s black operations to influence, manipulate, and control Caribbean crime and politics. The plot moves quickly. The love scenes are tastefully and playfully done, leaving more to the imagination than the printed page. There never seems to be any real danger to Alan; he surmounts all obstacles from ambush to attempted kidnapping with well-honed murderous efficiency. The style is spare prose, and the author is better in action scenes than set-up material. The premise that the CIA virtually ran rampant, without any regard to human life, is a theme throughout the book, but it seems a little too pat to be totally believable. So like a good action movie, it is fast-time entertainment. Being a series book, it moves several story lines ahead, developing them for the next book.