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This book compares favorably with another Coonts offering touching on piracy. "Sea of Terror", part of the "Deep Black" series, had a somewhat far-fetched scenario involving a hijacking in the North Atlantic and how high-tech NSA operatives might be used to reclaim it.This one focuses on a real, major problem - piracy in the Indian Ocean off the coast of lawless Somalia. Coonts' treatment of it is quite realistic.A large cruise ship is captured by pirates. Although both the ship's and nearby naval fleets see the attack coming, there's only so much they can do to try to repel it, and they fail. The fleet is too far away, its choppers don't have the range and are too vulnerable to small arms fire, and fighter planes can't fire on the attackers once they get close to the ship.Meanwhile, civilian leaders in Washington micromanage rescue attempts, overruling the choices of recurring series character Toad Tarkington, now the fleet's rear admiral. Jake Grafton and Tommy Carmellini, who is already on the ground in Somalia on another mission, have to stage a daring attempt to free the hostages who are now ashore in a lawless pirate's lair.Coonts has a good feel for the pirates: their willingness to kill hostages and, indeed, need to to instill fear in the others and back off any approaching military; their indiscipline leading to rape; their mental calculus when it comes to hostages, ransom and how much risk they're willing to take.

I'm not sure how to say it - but I've just read this and the newest Dale Brown book (Starfire) back-to-back and I was less than impressed with either - and both authors have always been near the top of my list for good reads. I've especially enjoyed the Tommy Carmellini series for the unique point-of-view they're written in, and the fact that Tommy is completely different than Grafton and the other characters in other books. The other Carmellini books were 92% Tommy, and 8% Jake, and it worked, but this book had too much Jake, and Tommy really took a sidekick role. I also liked that Tommy wasn't an expert operator in the previous books, but now his character has become some super-spook CIA Operative, and it takes a little of the character with it. Here's to hoping the next book has a lot more Tommy doing sneaky things.

Let me first begin by saying that I ordered this book for a visitor who likes this kind of story. After he left, I decided to read it as well. This was a fairly exciting book and having gone on several cruises, it was a nice slant on the conventional. Pirates taking over a . ship; exciting stuff. But what really kept me from giving this a four or a five star was the endless pounding on the President of the United States and seemingly all politicians. This coupled with the numerous plugs for Fox News was not only not believable but got real old after awhile. And, I think the author should be aware that we stopped calling Japanese "Japs" after WW11. I couldn't believe his editors would let him get away with saying something like "there was a gun on a Jap truck." So, this, the political bashing, the Fox News bit, referring to the pirates as "Rag Heads" all made for very uncomfortable reading.. Sure wished these guys (especially male authors) would leave their personal politics out of their stories. Maybe they'd get some legitimate 5 and 6 star reviews.

With "Pirate Alley," the pioneer of techno-thrillers has scored again. Steve Coonts tops himself by snatching headlines from today's six o'clock news, wrapping a multi-faceted, clever tale around a realistic at-sea takedown scenario, and scaring would-be cruise ship passengers into staying home.Coonts fans will find an old friend, ex-naval aviator Jake Grafton, once again being tapped by Washington's weak-kneed politicos to tackle the near-impossible: Negotiate the release of cruise ship passengers and crew members kidnapped by brutal Somalian pirates. Or, if Plan A fails, kill the pirates and their Islamic jihadist allies...without endangering a single hostage, of course.Grafton calls on his favorite snarky CIA operative, Tommy Carmellini, to handle tough sneak-and-peek intelligence gathering tasks, while Jake manipulates the chief buccaneer with multimillion-dollar assurances. Coonts raises the stakes via dangerous double-dealing and gut-wrenching gambles, until Navy SEALS, a batch of Brit and U.S. marines and deadly snipers start blowing things up. The raw, shocking brutality of kat-chewing pirates is answered by stealthy good-guys armed with high-tech tools and weapons.Throughout "Pirate Alley," Coonts also treats readers to Carmellini's snappy humor, such as this entreaty of Grafton: "I hope you intend to send me somewhere that has ceramic conveniences and toilet paper."

Stephen Coonts has been a favorite author of mine since the beginning. His ability to portray his characters in a very human and natural form is what makes his novels authentic and enjoyable to read. Jake Grafton and Tommy Carmelini have always been excellent when paired in various formats. It is fantastic, in each succeeding novel, Carmalini is "fleshed" out with more and more background biography. In the beginning novels when he appeared as just a safe-cracker and has now advanced to the "shadier" sides of the CIA. He spouts that he is "gonna retire" but it sounds like he "protesteth too much" too much to be taken seriously about "getting out" of the CIA. Between Carmelini's wisecracks and Jake Grafton's stone cold approach to all aspects of the mission they are both great foils to each others character and that provides excellent background for the reader to become immersed into the storyline. The reader is always rooting for both to succeed.