Clear by fire by Joshua Hood

Mandar's book review (12th Aug 2016)

"Clear by fire" by Joshua Hood. This book is published by Pocket books in 2016 and has 448 pages. This is Book 1 of 'Search and destroy' series.     

Anvil program is an off the books black ops group that destroys terrorists using their own methods and without any rules, anywhere in the world. Mason Kane was its star member. Now he is hunted by the government of USA. Renee Hart is special ops agent, a beautiful and fierce fighter, posted in Afghanistan. 

What is the objective of Anvil? Who is the rogue agent? Who is pulling the strings? Why would Mason try to stop them? What will be Renee's stand?

The book is publicized as a 'Search and Destroy' thriller. US government has issued orders to shoot Mason at sight. Mason wants to stop a band of rogue agents from unleashing a WMD in Libya. He pulls in all the favors to stay alive. Hamid Karzai assassinated. Mr. David recruits him to counter rogue agents. He, his friends and Renee are the only hope of the world. 

Due to authors background, he has written fight scenes with great technical details. However the story is not delivered equally well. It does not become lively. The fluidity is missing. Probably the author needs to work on this aspect. 

A number of questions go unanswered. How come a Libiyan spy becomes mentor of American special forces operative? Why does Zeus help Mason? How come Renee move wherever she wants without official approvals? What is the significance of Karzai's assassination for the plot?

The story would continue in this trilogy. Hopefully some of the questions will be answered if one reads the sequel. 

Give it a miss.