Secret Justice

An exciting military suspense novel. This is a story set in the middle of the War on Terrorism. It includes courtroom drama, fearless flying, down and dirty counter-terrorism. However, suspend belief that our hero could be on trial at the same time he conducts anti/counter terrorism ops. Both a hard-hitting special forces book and a legal drama.

First of all, I really like Lt. Kent "Rat" Rathman, the main character in this terrific book. This is a story set in the middle of the War on Terrorism. It includes courtroom drama, fearless flying, down and dirty counter-terrorism. Mr. Huston does a masterful job in crafting a story that causes you to examine your own opinions about important aspects of dealing with terrorists without being preachy or leaving you feeling like you have been ambushed for some political objective. It is just an effect of the ambiguity involved in many areas of this new type of war. The whole story line, characters, and writing are some of Mr. Huston's best.

I'm not quite sure why I decided to read Secret Justice given my review of The Shadows of Power, the first book in the Kent "Rat" Rathman series. I think that Huston wants Rat to be another Mitch Rapp. He isn't. On the positive side, in Secret Justice, Huston manages to create one of the intricate military plots that revolve, in large part, around "the law" (much as in Huston's first books which looked at the Constitutional power of Congress to issues letters of marquis and reprisal.) So, this time, Rat has much more to do in a much more interesting story. My complaint with Huston is that too often he allowed his own political views to take over this storytelling. When an author is able to concoct an interesting legal conundrum, he owes show more it to his readers to let them think about the issues without bashing them over the head with the author's view of the right answer. Thus, while I enjoyed the story, there was a bit too much ACLU-bashing for my tastes. show less

Don't miss this great thriller by a great writer!