Some of Nelson DeMille's books are so great that I despair when I read the last page; others are so annoying that I rue the day I opened them. The Gold Coast is an example of the former, while its sequel, The Gate House, is a prime example of the latter.
His latest just manages to skirt the line. John Corey, his recurring character, can't resist being the juvenile cut-up he was when I first encountered him in Plum Island (perhaps my favorite of DeMille's books). Fortunately, the plot is almost good enough that one can skip Corey's sophomoric one-liners and still enjoy the story.
Former NYPD detective Corey and his wife, FBI agent Kate Mayfield, both work for the Federal Anti-Terrorist Task Force, a joint operation between the two agencies. They met when they partnered up in The Lion's Game, in which they chased Libyan terrorist Asad Khalil in his murderous trail across the country. Khalil's plan was to kill the pilots responsible for the bombs that took out his family many years ago. He disappeared before he finished, but Corey always knew he'd be back.
It is soon evident that Corey and Mayfield are at the top of Khalil's to-do list. But they are not alone. Khalil does not let human emotions get in the way of his jihad. Soon bodies begin turning up, many of which belonged to fellow Muslims who Khalil killed after they helped him with the logistics of his latest terrorist activities. Corey and Mayfield believe that those in the Middle East who financed Khalil's personal vengeance would only do so if he agreed to also commit a 9/11 type atrocity. The question is whether the agents can find the killer before he's able to pull off a horrifying event. The NYPD and FBI want to capture and question the killer, but Corey just wants to kill him.
The plot is very tense, but suffers when a main character takes an unnecessary risk that the reader knows will be disastrous. (You know how you laugh at the stupidity of the teenage babysitter in a slasher film who goes into the basement to investigate a noise? I laughed at this character's similar stupidity. It's that unbelievable.) Ultimately, the book made me angry. I'm a major fan of DeMille, but my loyalty is waning. He is so incredibly talented, and his early books were so enjoyable, that it's a tragic waste that he's ruined his later books by his characters' off-putting immaturity. One only hopes that someday he'll realize how much better his books would be without the quips.
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