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Kirk McGarvey #2
Countdown
A high-tension espionage thriller as gripping as Frederick Forsyth's The Day of the Jackal, or Tom Clancy's The Hunt for Red October.
A Soviet Agent is found dead inside an Israeli nuclear weapons stockpile so secret the United States doesn't know it exists.
A Pershing missile that is guarded around the clock is hijacked from a maximum-security installation at a West German Air Force Base.
The U.S.S. Indianapolis, a submarine on training maneuvers off the coast of Italy, suddenly ceases transmitting -- then vanishes without a trace.
Two men are behind this deadly wave of terror. Colonel Valentin Baranov, the new head of the KGB, a man intent on destroying glasnost and rekindling the Cold War. And Arkady Kurshin, the ruthless assassin who is Baranov's finest weapon.
To stop them, the CIA must turn to maverick agent Kirk McGarvey, a trained killer as deadly as Kurshin. Driven by a vendetta against Baranov, McGarvey stalks Kurshin across the face of Europe, determined to find him before the clock runs out on an act of terrorism so devastating it could alter the balance of world power forever.
But a mole inside the Agency is monitoring McGarvery's every move. And the KGB has captured the woman McGavery has come to love...
A Soviet Agent is found dead inside an Israeli nuclear weapons stockpile so secret the United States doesn't know it exists.
A Pershing missile that is guarded around the clock is hijacked from a maximum-security installation at a West German Air Force Base.
The U.S.S. Indianapolis, a submarine on training maneuvers off the coast of Italy, suddenly ceases transmitting -- then vanishes without a trace.
Two men are behind this deadly wave of terror. Colonel Valentin Baranov, the new head of the KGB, a man intent on destroying glasnost and rekindling the Cold War. And Arkady Kurshin, the ruthless assassin who is Baranov's finest weapon.
To stop them, the CIA must turn to maverick agent Kirk McGarvey, a trained killer as deadly as Kurshin. Driven by a vendetta against Baranov, McGarvey stalks Kurshin across the face of Europe, determined to find him before the clock runs out on an act of terrorism so devastating it could alter the balance of world power forever.
But a mole inside the Agency is monitoring McGarvery's every move. And the KGB has captured the woman McGavery has come to love...
512 pages, ebook
First published May 11, 1990
28 people are currently reading
235 people want to read
About the author
David Hagberg
80 books137 followersaka David Bannerman, Sean Flannery, David James, Robert Pell, Eric Ramsey
David Hagberg is a former Air Force cryptographer who has traveled extensively in Europe, the Arctic, and the Caribbean and has spoken at CIA functions. He has published more than twenty novels of suspense, including the bestselling High Flight, Assassin, and Joshua's Hammer.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/davidh...
David Hagberg is a former Air Force cryptographer who has traveled extensively in Europe, the Arctic, and the Caribbean and has spoken at CIA functions. He has published more than twenty novels of suspense, including the bestselling High Flight, Assassin, and Joshua's Hammer.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/davidh...
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
May 14, 2022
If you like thrillers then you should do like i do and read the Kirk McGarvey series from David Hagberg. I found him through an ARC of book 27 in the series and now I'm reading them from the start. Countdown is the second and it's really good. The determination from both sides of good and evil is impressing. The bad luck for Kirk and where he will live is as I understand it an ongoing theme. I really like the tempo in these books, the reading is smooth and the characters great.
September 15, 2019
The new head of the KGB, Colonel Valentin Baranov, is plotting an attack on a secret Israeli nuclear weapons depot using a stolen American missile. Aided by information obtained from a suspected traitor inside the Pentagon and executed by a highly skilled operative by the name Arkady Kurshin, the attack would have devastaing consequences for the entire region. To prevent it and take down Baranov and Kurshin, Kirk McGarvey, who happens to have an old feud with Baranov, is once more called back into the field and ends up pursuing his quarry across half of Europe.
I didn't like this one nearly as much as the first book in the series. It trades subtlety and complexity for more action (much to its detriment), there's entirely too much cliché-laden dialogue being thrown around, and the romance subplot as well as the entire character of Dr. Lorraine Abbott just irritated the hell out of me.
I didn't like this one nearly as much as the first book in the series. It trades subtlety and complexity for more action (much to its detriment), there's entirely too much cliché-laden dialogue being thrown around, and the romance subplot as well as the entire character of Dr. Lorraine Abbott just irritated the hell out of me.
October 20, 2017
This was a well constructed, well written, action thriller, with a central character you could root for. The story moves along at a good pace with a nice mixture of danger, political intrigue and just a touch of romance. There is some unintended humor here too, as one character during the story, boasts of the immense storage capacity of a floppy disc. If your a fan of Vince Flynn or Brad Thor you will enjoy this series featuring Kirk McGarvey.
January 19, 2024
I struggled to get into this initially, but as it went through, it got more exciting, and I got more invested. I enjoyed the characters McGarvey the hero and Kurshin as the villain.
Abbot just made me mad, ignoring everything she was asked.
It had a good climax and finished well.
Abbot just made me mad, ignoring everything she was asked.
It had a good climax and finished well.
May 8, 2021
Great spy thriller. A little bloody,and a slow start but great end.
February 3, 2023
Really picked up towards the middle of the book and was a wild ride to the end. Noticed a couple of inaccuracies in the storyline, but no matter.
August 12, 2023
Read a long time ago.... outstanding
January 2, 2015
COUNTED OUT
David Hagberg. Now how should we classify his books? I would say espionage pulp fiction. They play to almost every cliché that has gone out of date and aren't as well researched as later authors like Brad Taylor and Stephen England. Basically his books are the result the sexism of Ian Fleming and the technology extravaganza of Tom Clancy coming together. Over 18 books and many of the more unpleasant and dated aspects of his work have increasingly been played down or disappeared all together. Here however, book number two in the Kirk Mcgarvey series, not so much. Now to the review. What happens when the man running the USSR'S security apparatus in the 1990's attempts to destroy Glasnost before it's set to be implemented?
The story is this. A KGB officer locates and verifies the existence of Israel's nuclear arsenal. The soldiers guarding the facility where it is situated manage to blow the man away with their UZI's but not before he gets word to the KGB director general about his discovery. Days later Arkady Kurshin, the KGB's resident hitman infiltrates Ramstein airbase and crashes out of it driving a nuclear missiles transport truck. He attempts to launch it at Israel from the heart of West Berlin but a last second intervention by former CIA shooter Kirk McGarvey saves the day. As a result of this failure, the KGB director general activates another plan, one which revolves around a big black US Navy submarine and how to hijack it and acquire the nuclear warheads it carries.
PLOT:
Very methodical and easy to follow. the basis of a format the future counter-terrorist thriller sub-genre would follow can be seen here. Action is serviceable. Nothing fancy or memorable. Plot twists are very predictable as well. The writing style is punchy and does the job but quite a bit of the dialogue is just simply corny. The threat of the novel hasn't aged well and can no longer be classified as "plausible". Just sit back and let the story take you for a ride back to a simpler time of glasnost paranoia.
CHARACTERS:
Bad. Very bad. They do not hold up well at all. First, there are the CIA officials. Highly unlikable, slightly bland, and while professing their loathing of the main character and their contempts of him and the work he does, still make use of him (a theme which may get explored further when I review these books).
Then, there is the main character himself, Kirk McGarvey. he's unlikable but in a different way.
But first, the good. Mitch Rapp, Scott Harvath and the first generation of counter-terrorist operative and killers constantly get portrayed to James Bond. That comparison is not valid. They are in fact the descendants of McGarvey. A rogue operative who kills and sacrifices his happiness for the United States and constantly gets shafted by politicians and bureaucrats. He is the progenitor of the post-9/11 espionage characters that come later. Watching him in this book and making comparison to contemporary spy thriller characters is fun to do. Now for the bad. McGarvey is a borderline passive aggressive sexist. Much of his behavior around women would be considered borderline unacceptable in this day and age. Mitch Rapp and Jack Bauer for all their brutality are polite and professional around the women in their lives and would never do the sort of things McGarvey does in this book and a few of the later ones.
But while McGarvey at least gets to do something in the book, we have to suffer the cliché "disposable woman/one book love interest" Dr Abbott. Mr Hagberg rehashes the old kabuki dance where the female character just can't stand the main character but after he saves her life, simply wants to throw everything away and throw herself at him. I did not feel sorry for her when two KGB bully-boys paid her a visit.
There was only one character who managed to gain my respect. Arkady Kurshin, the KGB hitman who is tasked with setting the Middle East ablaze. Sure, he's utterly insane and yes, he's a paid up antagonist. But he approached his work with way more professionalism than McGarvey did (he doesn't get distracted by a stupid love affair while on the job) and manages to stay one step ahead, unlike his boss. Arkady only slipped up when he couldn't dodge the knife thrown at him. But even then, he returns to make an even bigger splash in the sequel of this book.
So, my verdict on Countdown. It's a thriller which belongs in the time it was made in. Like the dinosaur carcass at a museum. It uses every cliché in the book and is sexist as hell but snatches a three star rating by having a well structured plot, a reasonably engaging writing style and a very good secondary antagonist. Read it so you can see how, many elements which would later become common place in the 21st century spy thriller genre came to be developed and how far the spy thriller genre has moved on from many tropes which now days look dated, stale and quite laughable.
INTERESTING STUDY
David Hagberg. Now how should we classify his books? I would say espionage pulp fiction. They play to almost every cliché that has gone out of date and aren't as well researched as later authors like Brad Taylor and Stephen England. Basically his books are the result the sexism of Ian Fleming and the technology extravaganza of Tom Clancy coming together. Over 18 books and many of the more unpleasant and dated aspects of his work have increasingly been played down or disappeared all together. Here however, book number two in the Kirk Mcgarvey series, not so much. Now to the review. What happens when the man running the USSR'S security apparatus in the 1990's attempts to destroy Glasnost before it's set to be implemented?
The story is this. A KGB officer locates and verifies the existence of Israel's nuclear arsenal. The soldiers guarding the facility where it is situated manage to blow the man away with their UZI's but not before he gets word to the KGB director general about his discovery. Days later Arkady Kurshin, the KGB's resident hitman infiltrates Ramstein airbase and crashes out of it driving a nuclear missiles transport truck. He attempts to launch it at Israel from the heart of West Berlin but a last second intervention by former CIA shooter Kirk McGarvey saves the day. As a result of this failure, the KGB director general activates another plan, one which revolves around a big black US Navy submarine and how to hijack it and acquire the nuclear warheads it carries.
PLOT:
Very methodical and easy to follow. the basis of a format the future counter-terrorist thriller sub-genre would follow can be seen here. Action is serviceable. Nothing fancy or memorable. Plot twists are very predictable as well. The writing style is punchy and does the job but quite a bit of the dialogue is just simply corny. The threat of the novel hasn't aged well and can no longer be classified as "plausible". Just sit back and let the story take you for a ride back to a simpler time of glasnost paranoia.
CHARACTERS:
Bad. Very bad. They do not hold up well at all. First, there are the CIA officials. Highly unlikable, slightly bland, and while professing their loathing of the main character and their contempts of him and the work he does, still make use of him (a theme which may get explored further when I review these books).
Then, there is the main character himself, Kirk McGarvey. he's unlikable but in a different way.
But first, the good. Mitch Rapp, Scott Harvath and the first generation of counter-terrorist operative and killers constantly get portrayed to James Bond. That comparison is not valid. They are in fact the descendants of McGarvey. A rogue operative who kills and sacrifices his happiness for the United States and constantly gets shafted by politicians and bureaucrats. He is the progenitor of the post-9/11 espionage characters that come later. Watching him in this book and making comparison to contemporary spy thriller characters is fun to do. Now for the bad. McGarvey is a borderline passive aggressive sexist. Much of his behavior around women would be considered borderline unacceptable in this day and age. Mitch Rapp and Jack Bauer for all their brutality are polite and professional around the women in their lives and would never do the sort of things McGarvey does in this book and a few of the later ones.
But while McGarvey at least gets to do something in the book, we have to suffer the cliché "disposable woman/one book love interest" Dr Abbott. Mr Hagberg rehashes the old kabuki dance where the female character just can't stand the main character but after he saves her life, simply wants to throw everything away and throw herself at him. I did not feel sorry for her when two KGB bully-boys paid her a visit.
There was only one character who managed to gain my respect. Arkady Kurshin, the KGB hitman who is tasked with setting the Middle East ablaze. Sure, he's utterly insane and yes, he's a paid up antagonist. But he approached his work with way more professionalism than McGarvey did (he doesn't get distracted by a stupid love affair while on the job) and manages to stay one step ahead, unlike his boss. Arkady only slipped up when he couldn't dodge the knife thrown at him. But even then, he returns to make an even bigger splash in the sequel of this book.
So, my verdict on Countdown. It's a thriller which belongs in the time it was made in. Like the dinosaur carcass at a museum. It uses every cliché in the book and is sexist as hell but snatches a three star rating by having a well structured plot, a reasonably engaging writing style and a very good secondary antagonist. Read it so you can see how, many elements which would later become common place in the 21st century spy thriller genre came to be developed and how far the spy thriller genre has moved on from many tropes which now days look dated, stale and quite laughable.
INTERESTING STUDY
December 28, 2015
If you are a Mitch Rapp fan, you will love Kirk McGarvey in David Hagberg's many novels. This novel is the 2nd, published in 1990.
CIA officials, Russian officials, KGB goons, revenge, betrayal, romance...from Virginia, to Russia, to Italy, to Germany, to France....this suspenseful thriller has it all.
McGarvey, an ex-CIA assassin, is called on by the Director of the CIA and the US President to hunt down and kill the KGB director and his henchman, Kurshin. Then, a US nuclear submarine loaded with missiles disappears. McGarvey is called on again.
As author Stephen Coonts said" this thriller "will curl your hair."
CIA officials, Russian officials, KGB goons, revenge, betrayal, romance...from Virginia, to Russia, to Italy, to Germany, to France....this suspenseful thriller has it all.
McGarvey, an ex-CIA assassin, is called on by the Director of the CIA and the US President to hunt down and kill the KGB director and his henchman, Kurshin. Then, a US nuclear submarine loaded with missiles disappears. McGarvey is called on again.
As author Stephen Coonts said" this thriller "will curl your hair."
May 20, 2016
Two books in and still not a fan of this hero or this series. This offering featured an almost omniscient Russian villain, a threat with nuclear weapons, a recall of our hero from semi-retirement, a shockingly high-level mole in the CIA, and a "love-the-bad-boy" woman.
In other words, it used EVERY device the first book used. Only it added a submarine.
I understand this genre can get somewhat formulaic, but don't you have to at least TRY to mix it up?
In other words, it used EVERY device the first book used. Only it added a submarine.
I understand this genre can get somewhat formulaic, but don't you have to at least TRY to mix it up?
February 5, 2015
Hooked on McGarvey
This book was fast paced, with twists and turns and kept me interested the entire way through. I almost stopped the series after the disappointing first book. I'm glad I decided to try reading one more book!
This book was fast paced, with twists and turns and kept me interested the entire way through. I almost stopped the series after the disappointing first book. I'm glad I decided to try reading one more book!
August 17, 2012
This might be the worst book I've ever read.
August 28, 2013
this was my second hagberg and probably my last. the writing, particularly the dialog, is just too pedantic. the ideas are good, the plot isn't bad for the genre, but the writing ruins it.
August 20, 2021
Second Hagburg book and I am hooked. Looking for the next Kirk McGarvey story. Lots of action, reality.
October 6, 2015
Friendship.
This is a very involved spy novel that will keep you wondering who is who and what will happen next.
This is a very involved spy novel that will keep you wondering who is who and what will happen next.
January 12, 2016
Very good and exciting book
May 10, 2010
Liked it. Look for the other Kirk McGarvey books
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews