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Presidential Agent #2
The Hostage
W. E. B. Griffin's #1 New York Times bestselling series finds Presidential Agent Charley Castillo in the middle of an investigation into kidnapping, assassination, and even political scandal in this action-packed thriller.
U.S. Army Special Forces Major Charley Castillo is tasked with a discreet mission by the President himself: to investigate the death of an American diplomat in Argentina and the kidnapping of that diplomat's wife. With the woman's children and family now at risk, Castillo's running out of time to uncover the connections and truth behind it all.
Amidst threats, murder, and a scandal tying the United Nations to Iraq, there is also a lot of money flying around--and some people will do anything it takes to get their hands on it...
U.S. Army Special Forces Major Charley Castillo is tasked with a discreet mission by the President himself: to investigate the death of an American diplomat in Argentina and the kidnapping of that diplomat's wife. With the woman's children and family now at risk, Castillo's running out of time to uncover the connections and truth behind it all.
Amidst threats, murder, and a scandal tying the United Nations to Iraq, there is also a lot of money flying around--and some people will do anything it takes to get their hands on it...
768 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
472 people are currently reading
2464 people want to read
About the author
W.E.B. Griffin
351 books1,298 followersW.E.B. Griffin was one of several pseudonyms for William E. Butterworth III.
From the Authors Website:
W.E.B. Griffin was the #1 best-selling author of more than fifty epic novels in seven series, all of which have made The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Publishers Weekly, and other best-seller lists. More than fifty million of the books are in print in more than ten languages, including Hebrew, Chinese, Japanese, and Hungarian.
Mr. Griffin grew up in the suburbs of New York City and Philadelphia. He enlisted in the United States Army in 1946. After basic training, he received counterintelligence training at Fort Holabird, Maryland. He was assigned to the Army of Occupation in Germany, and ultimately to the staff of then-Major General I.D. White, commander of the U.S. Constabulary.
In 1951, Mr. Griffin was recalled to active duty for the Korean War, interrupting his education at Phillips University, Marburg an der Lahn, Germany. In Korea he earned the Combat Infantry Badge as a combat correspondent and later served as acting X Corps (Group) information officer under Lieutenant General White.
On his release from active duty in 1953, Mr. Griffin was appointed Chief of the Publications Division of the U.S. Army Signal Aviation Test & Support Activity at Fort Rucker, Alabama.
Mr. Griffin was a member of the Special Operations Association, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the American Legion, the Army Aviation Association, the Armor Association, and the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) Society.
He was the 1991 recipient of the Brigadier General Robert L. Dening Memorial Distinguished Service Award of the U.S. Marine Corps Combat Correspondents Association, and the August 1999 recipient of the Veterans of Foreign Wars News Media Award, presented at the 100th National Convention in Kansas City.
He has been vested into the Order of St. George of the U.S. Armor Association, and the Order of St. Andrew of the U.S. Army Aviation Association, and been awarded Honorary Doctoral degrees by Norwich University, the nation’s first and oldest private military college, and by Troy State University (Ala.). He was the graduation dinner speaker for the class of 1988 at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
He has been awarded honorary membership in the Special Forces Association, the Marine Corps Combat Correspondents Association, the Marine Raiders Association, and the U.S. Army Otter & Caribou Association. In January 2003, he was made a life member of the Police Chiefs Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania, Southern New Jersey, and the State of Delaware.
He was the co-founder, with historian Colonel Carlo D’Este, of the William E. Colby Seminar on Intelligence, Military, and Diplomatic Affairs. (Details here and here)
He was a Life Member of the National Rifle Association. And he belongs to the Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Pensacola, Florida, chapters of the Flat Earth Society.
Mr. Griffin’s novels, known for their historical accuracy, have been praised by The Philadelphia Inquirer for their “fierce, stop-for-nothing scenes.”
“Nothing honors me more than a serviceman, veteran, or cop telling me he enjoys reading my books,” Mr. Griffin says.
Mr. Griffin divides his time between the Gulf Coast and Buenos Aires.
Notes:
Other Pseudonyms
* Alex Baldwin
* Webb Beech
* Walker E. Blake
* W.E. Butterworth
* James McM. Douglas
* Eden Hughes
* Edmund O. Scholefield
* Patrick J. Williams
* W. E. Butterworth
* John Kevin Dugan
* Jac
From the Authors Website:
W.E.B. Griffin was the #1 best-selling author of more than fifty epic novels in seven series, all of which have made The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Publishers Weekly, and other best-seller lists. More than fifty million of the books are in print in more than ten languages, including Hebrew, Chinese, Japanese, and Hungarian.
Mr. Griffin grew up in the suburbs of New York City and Philadelphia. He enlisted in the United States Army in 1946. After basic training, he received counterintelligence training at Fort Holabird, Maryland. He was assigned to the Army of Occupation in Germany, and ultimately to the staff of then-Major General I.D. White, commander of the U.S. Constabulary.
In 1951, Mr. Griffin was recalled to active duty for the Korean War, interrupting his education at Phillips University, Marburg an der Lahn, Germany. In Korea he earned the Combat Infantry Badge as a combat correspondent and later served as acting X Corps (Group) information officer under Lieutenant General White.
On his release from active duty in 1953, Mr. Griffin was appointed Chief of the Publications Division of the U.S. Army Signal Aviation Test & Support Activity at Fort Rucker, Alabama.
Mr. Griffin was a member of the Special Operations Association, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the American Legion, the Army Aviation Association, the Armor Association, and the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) Society.
He was the 1991 recipient of the Brigadier General Robert L. Dening Memorial Distinguished Service Award of the U.S. Marine Corps Combat Correspondents Association, and the August 1999 recipient of the Veterans of Foreign Wars News Media Award, presented at the 100th National Convention in Kansas City.
He has been vested into the Order of St. George of the U.S. Armor Association, and the Order of St. Andrew of the U.S. Army Aviation Association, and been awarded Honorary Doctoral degrees by Norwich University, the nation’s first and oldest private military college, and by Troy State University (Ala.). He was the graduation dinner speaker for the class of 1988 at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
He has been awarded honorary membership in the Special Forces Association, the Marine Corps Combat Correspondents Association, the Marine Raiders Association, and the U.S. Army Otter & Caribou Association. In January 2003, he was made a life member of the Police Chiefs Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania, Southern New Jersey, and the State of Delaware.
He was the co-founder, with historian Colonel Carlo D’Este, of the William E. Colby Seminar on Intelligence, Military, and Diplomatic Affairs. (Details here and here)
He was a Life Member of the National Rifle Association. And he belongs to the Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Pensacola, Florida, chapters of the Flat Earth Society.
Mr. Griffin’s novels, known for their historical accuracy, have been praised by The Philadelphia Inquirer for their “fierce, stop-for-nothing scenes.”
“Nothing honors me more than a serviceman, veteran, or cop telling me he enjoys reading my books,” Mr. Griffin says.
Mr. Griffin divides his time between the Gulf Coast and Buenos Aires.
Notes:
Other Pseudonyms
* Alex Baldwin
* Webb Beech
* Walker E. Blake
* W.E. Butterworth
* James McM. Douglas
* Eden Hughes
* Edmund O. Scholefield
* Patrick J. Williams
* W. E. Butterworth
* John Kevin Dugan
* Jac
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 184 reviews
June 28, 2021
Oil for food, a great program right? No chance that someone will use it for personal gain. The Hostage continues where the previous book left us. Castillo is still hunting the ones behind the kidnapping of Mrs. Masterson and murder of Mr. Masterson. I really like this series by W.E.B. Griffin and the way he tells the story of interservice rivalry and political power games. I am trying to read all in this series before Rogue Asset by Andrews & Wilson releases in December, so I can compare and be up to date with the characters. I always recommend the books written under the name of Griffin. I have them all both in hardback and ebook and reread them with regularity. Highly recommended stuff.
November 20, 2008
I mentioned a while back that Close Combat was the first Griffin novel I had read; that turns out not to be the case. As I read through this one, I was bothered by a sense of déjà vu; I recognized many of the characters, knew their names, their relationships, the locale, etc., but not all—in fact, what bothered me most was thinking that I had read some of this book but not all of it, as there clearly were events that seemed completely new to me. The answer turned out to be that this book is a prequel to The Hunters, which I picked up as a pocketbook and read last winter while waiting for an entire new brake system to be put on my van, which is another story. This novel has the same characteristics that I have observed in other Griffin books: excessively repeated use of full names and titles for all characters, pivotal points being communicated to the characters in officialese cablegrams from Washington, and a mixture of real historical figures and characters larger than life (who like to drink Famous Grouse whisky) and are astonishingly successful with women. As I noticed with Close Combat and Behind the Lines, this prequel actually overlaps, with the ending events being retold in the sequel, but told differently. Unlike XX, who has an astonishingly annoying technique of continually repeating references to what happened in other parts of his series, Griffin’s technique is to simply retell enough of the story that the reader does not feel left out, because he gets enough of the background without being told that there is another book, other than the fact that both of these are called “A Presidential Agent Novel.” This one apparently was the second (and I have no idea from the cover blurb what the first novel was called, but there clearly was one), in which the President of the United States (unnamed, unlike Griffin’s Marines series) rewards Major Charley Castillo, who did such a good job in the preceding unknown novel that he is assigned to the Department of Homeland Security to perform a special investigation, to determine who kidnapped an American diplomat’s wife in Argentina and murdered her husband. As with other Griffin heroes, Charley is young but very much a can-do type of guy, who moves among different social circles with ease and manages to get people to do things, as he starts getting involved in the payoffs of the UN/Iraq oil-for-food scandal. Charley is also using the opportunity to try to become better acquainted with a former female cop who apparently was of some help in the previous novel, as well as furthering his acquaintance with a gun-running gangster who had loaned him a plane in the previous book and turns out to be living in Argentina with his family when not terrifying the rest of the world, as well as getting to know some interesting FBI agents and diplomats, along with a couple young marines ordered to help him. Fairly fast paced, with adventuresome but unbelievable characters; it makes a good read. If you like Clive Cussler’s books, you’ll probably like W.E.B. Griffin’s books.
January 31, 2019
Enjoyable to listen to in the evening prior to bedtime. Charley Castillo is a great protagonist. Like all Griffin books it helps if you start at the beginning of the series. I didn't b/c I bought this at a thrift store for $3. Like all his novels in series, the protagonist solves one problem, but the ending doesn't answer all the questions. IT begs you to buy the next book in the series. I can sum it up with: Suspenseful, Action-packed, Heart-pounding.
September 12, 2024
I always enjoy WEB Griffin's books and this was one of his best. Carlos Castillo is sent to Argentina by the President to look into the kidnapping of an attache's wife.
Many things happen (spoilers) and the case turns out to be much bigger than a mere ransom case. An enjoyable espionage thriller with money laundering, bureaucracy, assassins and much more.
Most of the previous Griffin books are period pieces, many set in wartime, but this is more or less current, set in 2005.
Many things happen (spoilers) and the case turns out to be much bigger than a mere ransom case. An enjoyable espionage thriller with money laundering, bureaucracy, assassins and much more.
Most of the previous Griffin books are period pieces, many set in wartime, but this is more or less current, set in 2005.
April 2, 2020
What I have seen from this author is that the ending isn't the most important thing, its the journey that the characters took to get there. Compared to the first novel, this one was definitely chunky. But, it seems that the extra length resulted in a bit more of a faster pace and there was definitely more action in this one. I love Charlie, who just seems to be a likable guy that people listen to and I thought it was adorable how the other assistants seem to dote on him. In addition, I loved the love story between him and Betty, which I thought had died in the first novel. The ending wasn't the class superhero ending where everything goes exactly the way that it should. Instead, although it was bittersweet, the ending was real. Even though its fiction, it showed the reality of the military. Plus, I work at a military school and everyone thinks its hilarious that I read these. I do not look like someone who would read WEB Griffin novels.
May 27, 2008
This was the 2nd in the "Presidential Agent" series by WEB Griffin. I enjoyed it. It is an action series but gets into character development more than alot of action stories. Griffin is very much into the military details. This story focuses on the main character now getting involved in a diplomat's wife taken hostage and getting into the development of find those behind it and "rendering harmless".
March 31, 2017
Fast-paced, excellent thriller.
May 17, 2012
Horrible writing style albeit old fashioned. Snail-crawling storyline, textbook-like sentences, every page was a tormenting, lot of italic paragraphs that were supposed to be the thoughts of all those moronic characters in this book. none of the characters looked realistic and capable. This book was more about logistics ("Get me a plane. Get me a cell phone. Get me a cellphone charger. Get me a car. Get me a parking space.") and all the assorted chatter that goes along with getting the logistics handled. Then all the bureaucratics - every few pages we'd meet someone new and THEY would have to be brought up to speed - AGAIN. We had maybe three or four scenes with "The Hostage" - she is pretty much irrelevant to this book. Then we have the half-baked love story featuring Wiener Schnitzel. Oh and we FINALLY get the hero (yawn) to meet up with the bad guy (after 4 pages of the bad guy cooking his Chateaubriand...) and they politely have a conversation about his *passport* - this after 750+ pages...which could have been cut at least 5 pages but eliminating pilot chatter as they took off and landed every plane...well I was BEGGING for Vince Flynn to send in Mitch Rapp to clean up this mess.
March 28, 2017
I had to get used to WEB Griffin's style. He liked to set a lot of the events in the form of meetings with various people, and that seemed to drag things a bit. But I recall that the same criticism was hurled at JRR Tolkien in the Lord of the Rings. Like other reviews mentioned, the ending came pretty much in a rush, as if WEB was tired of this one and wanted to move on to the next.
So I have some quibbles. But this was still and entertaining read. Charlie Castillo is a great character, with just enough flaws to make him human.
Some of the pompous diplomats were amusing. Nos so amusing, but probably true-to-life, was the constant infighting among Charlie's supposed allies. WEB Griffin has been compared to Clive Cussler, but I like WEB way better.
I have to recommend this one to fans of the genre.
So I have some quibbles. But this was still and entertaining read. Charlie Castillo is a great character, with just enough flaws to make him human.
Some of the pompous diplomats were amusing. Nos so amusing, but probably true-to-life, was the constant infighting among Charlie's supposed allies. WEB Griffin has been compared to Clive Cussler, but I like WEB way better.
I have to recommend this one to fans of the genre.
September 20, 2012
This is a great spy novel.
The author captures the inner workings of the US security and military bureaucracies with clever character building and a great deal of respect for the degree of difficulty officers are forced to operate within. The theme is fascinating. The President, a Tarheel like me, Is well aware of the problem with agencies not used to cooperating with one another, rivalries, power grabs, egos, ectetera. He has discovered a talented young major he can use to cut through rival bureaucracies to expose security breaches while solving the problem at hand.
Did you happen to see the excellent movie Spy Games with Redford and Brad Pitt. This series reminds me of that movie.
The author captures the inner workings of the US security and military bureaucracies with clever character building and a great deal of respect for the degree of difficulty officers are forced to operate within. The theme is fascinating. The President, a Tarheel like me, Is well aware of the problem with agencies not used to cooperating with one another, rivalries, power grabs, egos, ectetera. He has discovered a talented young major he can use to cut through rival bureaucracies to expose security breaches while solving the problem at hand.
Did you happen to see the excellent movie Spy Games with Redford and Brad Pitt. This series reminds me of that movie.
Read
April 26, 2021The second in the Presidential Agent series by Griffin, starring Charlie Castillo, begins with the kidnapping of a U.S. diplomat's wife in Argentina. The President wants his own eyes on the ground, in addition to the CIA and FBI agents already in country, so he sends Charlie and his friends to investigate.
Things go from bad to worse, however, within a short time, when the diplomat meets with the kidnappers without anyone on the team's knowledge, and is murdered by them. His wife, however, is released. This turn of events really peeves the president, and he issues a finding which creates a special agency within the department of Homeland Security, answerable only to him, with Charlie at its head. Its mission is to "render harmless" those responsible for the murder.
The villains also, in an unsuccessful attempt to kill Charlie, manage to kill his Marine driver and wound his lady love, Betty Schneider. Worrying about her health while he's trying to figure out why this is all happening puts him under quite a bit of stress, but he seems to deal with it all right, he just gets a little whiny at times.
The pace of this novel is pretty slow. There are lots of little flashbacks and sidebars re-telling the back story that we got in the first book, for those who haven't been following from the beginning, which is a little irritating. There's another thing about this whole series that I find a bit implausible; all of the people that Castillo is friends with are just so extraordinarily competent and amiable, it begins to stretch the bonds of credibility. It's a little bit like the soirees at Lazarus Long's place in Time Enough for Love, where everyone is intelligent, beautiful and witty.
The ending, as well, was a little abrupt. I can't tell whether Griffin is planning on continuing the story line later, or whether he just couldn't figure out how to end it in a satisfying manner.
Things go from bad to worse, however, within a short time, when the diplomat meets with the kidnappers without anyone on the team's knowledge, and is murdered by them. His wife, however, is released. This turn of events really peeves the president, and he issues a finding which creates a special agency within the department of Homeland Security, answerable only to him, with Charlie at its head. Its mission is to "render harmless" those responsible for the murder.
The villains also, in an unsuccessful attempt to kill Charlie, manage to kill his Marine driver and wound his lady love, Betty Schneider. Worrying about her health while he's trying to figure out why this is all happening puts him under quite a bit of stress, but he seems to deal with it all right, he just gets a little whiny at times.
The pace of this novel is pretty slow. There are lots of little flashbacks and sidebars re-telling the back story that we got in the first book, for those who haven't been following from the beginning, which is a little irritating. There's another thing about this whole series that I find a bit implausible; all of the people that Castillo is friends with are just so extraordinarily competent and amiable, it begins to stretch the bonds of credibility. It's a little bit like the soirees at Lazarus Long's place in Time Enough for Love, where everyone is intelligent, beautiful and witty.
The ending, as well, was a little abrupt. I can't tell whether Griffin is planning on continuing the story line later, or whether he just couldn't figure out how to end it in a satisfying manner.
July 27, 2024
This series has been very enjoyable. It's extremely realistic in the fact that the politics, negotiations, planning, and paperwork are 95% of any real operation. The actual field action is over in a flash, which is exactly how these books play out. It was a good story, beefed up with lots of historical facts and even a modern conspiracy worked into the plot with excellent results (no spoilers!). The characters are realistic, colorful, and funny. Exactly the type of people you'd expect in these roles.
August 19, 2025
I borrowed The Hostage, book two in Griffin's Presidential Agent series of techo-thrillers, because I'd never read a story set in a post-9/11 world that followed the adventures of an operative for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The operative in this case is one Charley Castillo, an Army major and Green Beret of German and "Texican" background whom Griffin introduced to popular literature in By Order of the President.
Sent to Argentina to find out what he can about the kidnapping of an American diplomat's wife and her husband's subsequent murder, Castillo soon learns that the woman's estranged brother is the person most responsible for the mayhem disrupting her family, because he's a mid-level United Nations bureaucrat who knows more than he should about the particulars of the (ripped from actual news headlines) Oil-for-Food scandal by which Saddam Hussein played former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan like a Stradivarius. Lethal people are now looking for the wily brother.
Enter Castillo and his cronies, who bury a promising plot under a seemingly endless succession of meetings with each other, meetings with their superiors, and meetings with informants. Although this aspect of the book is probably true to civil service culture, it doesn't do much for Castillo's bonafides as a man of action.
That a Green Beret would be fluent in three languages and certified as a helicopter pilot is believable, but that he would also have a Lear jet and a trust fund at his disposal strains credulity. This reader wondered whether Major Castillo was perhaps a poorly-imagined reboot of DC comics icon Bruce ("Batman") Wayne.
Interoffice romance between Castillo and a Philadelphia-cop turned-Secret-Service hottie named Betty Schneider never becomes believable, either. Schneider is never described. Worse, Major Castillo turns "wiener schnitzel" into a pet name for his would-be lady love, and then repeats the phrase ad nauseum.
Griffin sounds like Hemingway drained of all color. Consider this airport scene:
"The Air Commandos gave the hand salute. Some other people got out of the trucks. Jean-Paul had no idea who they were. They went into the airplane. A minute or so later, four people, two men and two women, came back out. They were followed by eight or ten other people, some of them -- including two Marines-- in uniform. They all headed for the Yukons and got into them."
Got that? Unidentified people get into and out of an airplane and several trucks. Where other writers would have said "The commandos saluted," Griffen says they "gave the hand salute." Marines have several different uniforms, but nothing about the paragraph hints at that, and all we get by way of description is that the trucks are GMC Yukons (that choice might actually be more daring than it sounds, in a genre where CIA teams routinely tool around in black Chevy Suburbans with tinted windows).
Meanwhile, Castillo only sounds believable when he's thinking like an operator, and it's in those moments that Griffith almost makes the story sing, as in this exchange on p. 433 between the American ambassador to Argentina and Major Castillo:
Good stuff, that. Sadly, the book doesn't have much of it. The Marine bodyguard whom everyone underestimates because he looks like he's still in high school-- well of course he turns out to be a crack shot. As payoffs go, that one's a gimme.
Techno-thrillers set the bar low, but I'd rather immerse myself in a graphic novel than spend 465 pages hoping that cardboard characters will get out of manhunt meetings long enough to do something other than travel to other meetings in more exotic locations. I wanted to like this story, and I did read all the way through to its anticlimactic finish, but The Hostage is not a book that I can recommend.
Sent to Argentina to find out what he can about the kidnapping of an American diplomat's wife and her husband's subsequent murder, Castillo soon learns that the woman's estranged brother is the person most responsible for the mayhem disrupting her family, because he's a mid-level United Nations bureaucrat who knows more than he should about the particulars of the (ripped from actual news headlines) Oil-for-Food scandal by which Saddam Hussein played former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan like a Stradivarius. Lethal people are now looking for the wily brother.
Enter Castillo and his cronies, who bury a promising plot under a seemingly endless succession of meetings with each other, meetings with their superiors, and meetings with informants. Although this aspect of the book is probably true to civil service culture, it doesn't do much for Castillo's bonafides as a man of action.
That a Green Beret would be fluent in three languages and certified as a helicopter pilot is believable, but that he would also have a Lear jet and a trust fund at his disposal strains credulity. This reader wondered whether Major Castillo was perhaps a poorly-imagined reboot of DC comics icon Bruce ("Batman") Wayne.
Interoffice romance between Castillo and a Philadelphia-cop turned-Secret-Service hottie named Betty Schneider never becomes believable, either. Schneider is never described. Worse, Major Castillo turns "wiener schnitzel" into a pet name for his would-be lady love, and then repeats the phrase ad nauseum.
Griffin sounds like Hemingway drained of all color. Consider this airport scene:
"The Air Commandos gave the hand salute. Some other people got out of the trucks. Jean-Paul had no idea who they were. They went into the airplane. A minute or so later, four people, two men and two women, came back out. They were followed by eight or ten other people, some of them -- including two Marines-- in uniform. They all headed for the Yukons and got into them."
Got that? Unidentified people get into and out of an airplane and several trucks. Where other writers would have said "The commandos saluted," Griffen says they "gave the hand salute." Marines have several different uniforms, but nothing about the paragraph hints at that, and all we get by way of description is that the trucks are GMC Yukons (that choice might actually be more daring than it sounds, in a genre where CIA teams routinely tool around in black Chevy Suburbans with tinted windows).
Meanwhile, Castillo only sounds believable when he's thinking like an operator, and it's in those moments that Griffith almost makes the story sing, as in this exchange on p. 433 between the American ambassador to Argentina and Major Castillo:
"How are things going so far? Just generally, if details may be inappropriate."
"The first thing that can go wrong with this operation is that when I get to Jorge Newbury at five o'clock, a helicopter I borrowed won't be there. Or it will be there and the man in it will shoot me. Or if it's there and he doesn't shoot me, it will be equipped with a pressure-sensitive detonator and a couple of pounds of Semtex which will go bang when I pass through one thousand feet. Or if that doesn't happen, the engine will quit when I am equidistant over the Rio Plate between Jorge Newbury and Corrasco. Aside from that, everything's going swimmingly."
Silvio shook his head.
"That's today. The list of what can go wrong tomorrow is a little longer," Castillo said.
Good stuff, that. Sadly, the book doesn't have much of it. The Marine bodyguard whom everyone underestimates because he looks like he's still in high school-- well of course he turns out to be a crack shot. As payoffs go, that one's a gimme.
Techno-thrillers set the bar low, but I'd rather immerse myself in a graphic novel than spend 465 pages hoping that cardboard characters will get out of manhunt meetings long enough to do something other than travel to other meetings in more exotic locations. I wanted to like this story, and I did read all the way through to its anticlimactic finish, but The Hostage is not a book that I can recommend.
January 2, 2012
Although this book became boring and the pace somehow managed to drag a bit, I found it an interesting novel. First, I found it to be a credible thriller and a decent and realistic spy novel. There were historical factoids dropped like booms from a b52 that were extremely interesting. Conspiracy theorists might also enjoy a few of the tidbits. Of course, there were a few times when I ha to suspend my disbelief slightly. The action sequences are a bit shorter than I would like. There was an awful lot of pages spent discussing options, schemes, and planning of operations.
Still, I kept turning pages, thrilled at each discovery and plot development. Then I got to the climax of the story and my nerves were set on edge as I read not one, not two, not three, but four pages describing how to cook Chateaubriand the correct way. All of this while looking for the actual climax of the novel. Really. Until I got to that point this was going to be a four star review. Then, the conclusion was so anticlimactic that it almost ruined the novel for me. It is like the author got past seven hundred pages and said in a voice reminiscent of Walt Disney's "Goofy", "Duh, yup, I better wrap this one up right quick, yup, yup!"
In other words, a decent book, marred in places by slow pacing, and then suddenly rushed to a conclusion! This remind me of the old joke about the guy who got pulled over for doing 85 mph and tells the cop that he had driven 45 for awhile so his speed averaged 65!
I enjoyed this flawed book, and will try at least one more in the series before giving up on the author, just because I like the way he sprinkles in those historical facts. Also, the author does a great job of catching the reader up on the first book in the series without making him feel he missed much if he hadn't read it
Added later:
Although the author caught the reader up, the first novel was full of interesting details about Charley's career and worth catching up.
Still, I kept turning pages, thrilled at each discovery and plot development. Then I got to the climax of the story and my nerves were set on edge as I read not one, not two, not three, but four pages describing how to cook Chateaubriand the correct way. All of this while looking for the actual climax of the novel. Really. Until I got to that point this was going to be a four star review. Then, the conclusion was so anticlimactic that it almost ruined the novel for me. It is like the author got past seven hundred pages and said in a voice reminiscent of Walt Disney's "Goofy", "Duh, yup, I better wrap this one up right quick, yup, yup!"
In other words, a decent book, marred in places by slow pacing, and then suddenly rushed to a conclusion! This remind me of the old joke about the guy who got pulled over for doing 85 mph and tells the cop that he had driven 45 for awhile so his speed averaged 65!
I enjoyed this flawed book, and will try at least one more in the series before giving up on the author, just because I like the way he sprinkles in those historical facts. Also, the author does a great job of catching the reader up on the first book in the series without making him feel he missed much if he hadn't read it
Added later:
Although the author caught the reader up, the first novel was full of interesting details about Charley's career and worth catching up.
September 8, 2018
This is the second book in the series. The first book has no relation to this one other than the characters and in this one it tells you basically what happened in the first book a brief paragraphs.
Our hero is back but this time he's to find the one state department person who's missing and his wife. However, before long the state department guy is killed and the wife's back but not telling anything. Then our hero brings his love interest to him because he thinks she'd do good with the wife of the state department official. However, just after they acknowledged and were open about their personal relationship, something happens which forces the heroine to be in he hospital. Our hero is beside himself but also tries to keep this new love his life happy.
Unfortunately before long he's off flying around Europe once again. However, this time they are getting closer to the wife's brother, and in turn, getting some clues who did this killing of the official. At the end they don't have many answers but are starting to get a game plan going.
Not bad, but starting to drag in areas. I found many things were repeated more than once which gets a bit tiring to read. The book is a very long book as it is but to keep repeating things is just crazy. It was an ok book, but hoping it starts to get better. Besides I'm drying to see where the hero's love life goes as the author didn't spend much time in this area.
Our hero is back but this time he's to find the one state department person who's missing and his wife. However, before long the state department guy is killed and the wife's back but not telling anything. Then our hero brings his love interest to him because he thinks she'd do good with the wife of the state department official. However, just after they acknowledged and were open about their personal relationship, something happens which forces the heroine to be in he hospital. Our hero is beside himself but also tries to keep this new love his life happy.
Unfortunately before long he's off flying around Europe once again. However, this time they are getting closer to the wife's brother, and in turn, getting some clues who did this killing of the official. At the end they don't have many answers but are starting to get a game plan going.
Not bad, but starting to drag in areas. I found many things were repeated more than once which gets a bit tiring to read. The book is a very long book as it is but to keep repeating things is just crazy. It was an ok book, but hoping it starts to get better. Besides I'm drying to see where the hero's love life goes as the author didn't spend much time in this area.
June 7, 2013
Casillo Two: Iraqi Oil-for-Food and Diplomatic Intrigue. A US diplomat's wife kidnapped in Buenos Aires sets off a hornet's nest that trips into a shit storm when the diplomat is killed and the President wants Castillo to find who did it and 'render them harmless'. Castillo launches to BA and immediately requests team augmentation from his prospective concubine and undercover buddy from Philly. Following the diplomat's killing, an assassination attempt is made on Castillo's embassy car, which was sent to convey his now bodily fluid exchange partner to a restaurant for happy hour; unfortunately, the hit team kills the driver and badly wounds Betty, regaling Castillo with sorrow and anger. Discovering that the kidnap/killing had to do with the hit team seeking the diplomat wife's brother, Charley starts pulling strings and finds that the brother was a bagman for the Iraqi's in their Oil for Food program in the late 1990's and has gone into hiding. Acting on a hunch, Charley returns to BA and uses Two-Gun Tung to find Lorimer's lair in Tacurembo, Uruguay and plans and executes a snatch op that goes awry when the Russian Spetsnaz hit team simultaneously raids Lorimer's estancia and kills him, wounds Munz and Lester Bradley saves Charley's life with a well aimed 7.62 sniper rifle.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 10, 2016
For a thriller, The Hostage had very little action. In fact, in a 15-disk audio book, things didn't really get moving until Disk 15. The characters spent all their time talking to one another. Dialogue can progress a plot but these characters constantly repeated themselves which slowed the pace. You know things are restated too often when you can accidentally skip a disk and not be lost. Another concern: Once a character was identified, the reader doesn't need to be reminded of that character's rank every time the character makes an appearance. By Chapter 4, I had it that Castillo was a major. I didn't need to be told in every chapter that followed. Where was Griffin's editor? Too bad because the basic premise was a good one although the ending was an obvious set-up for the next book.
June 29, 2014
Not quite as good as "Presidential Agent #1"; however, quite exciting at times. At 15 disks, this audio book was quite lengthy and personally some of the excess could have been removed and not really change the story. The return of Howard Kennedy and Alexander Pevsner keep things interesting in an offbeat way. I also liked Betty Schneider and Jack Britain's return as secret service agents, working with C G Castillo . . . and the blossoming relation between Charley and Betty. The ending did not have the big bang I like; however, it took a turn from the expected, which I really enjoyed. I'll smile whenever I hear wiener schnitzel! 7 out of 10 for me on #2 in this series.
January 26, 2014
Just a formulaic canned book
February 11, 2017
Tedious. 700 pages of government meetings, 50 pages of intrigue
January 10, 2018
Good plot. Writing style drives me a bit nutsy, but I continue to read this author’s books anyway.
November 27, 2021
Just goes on and on and on and never really gets anywhere - except as a lead-in to the next book in the series.
May 25, 2024
A good detective novel is quite formulaic. It starts very nearly the beginning if not at the outset with a dead body. We need a detective who is determined but somewhat flawed. And, we need ambiance. Think James Lee Burke and Louisiana or even the Orient Express to provide background. Our detective can be a cop or private eye. Most novels follow a series of interviews or encounters leading to the solution of the crime. Griffin’s detective is unusual in that he is a Green Beret although he doesn’t have X Man like powers of former military cop Jack Reacher. His flaw is that he is very junior for an individual placed in the position he ends up in. Additionally, there is the suggestion that he is an inveterate cock hound. His Secret Service code name is Don Juan. Yet in book one he only hooks up with two ladies. The first, a CIA bureaucrat seduces him; the second is a pro who shows up at his hotel room courtesy of a Russian arms dealer. Not much effort on Don Juan’s part. In this yarn he falls for a Philadelphia cop. Actually I think Griffin would have been better off leaving the romantic stuff out because Castillo’s (our hero) courting behavior is very cringy. Every time he calls his lady love “Weiner schnitzel” I want to fast forward. That criticism aside, the author has set up the ambiance portion of the series quite brilliantly by making Castillo a wealthy, smart, half German, half Tex-Mex multilingual special forces soldier who has proven himself in combat, who works for the Secretary of Homeland Security (a man who also happens to be best friends with the President). The result is that Griffin can do pretty much what he wants plot wise in any location he chooses. The Hostage takes place mostly in Argentina which is fun because Americans don’t know much about South America. The dead body is an assassinated diplomat. The President was so impressed with Castillo in book one when he stole the missing 727 back from terrorists that he sends him to Argentina to investigate. Except for the characters in South American (American and South American) Castillo assembles pretty much the same crew from book one including his, dare I say it, “Weiner schnitzel”. As things get more serious the President issues a finding establishing a super secret organization within Homeland Security that reports directly to the President and headed by you know who.
This story will continue into book three—The Hunters. One of the most enjoyable parts of this series is the detailing of interagency conflict between Homeland Security, CIA, FBI, Director of National Intelligence, Army, Air Force, etc. Griffin’s talent really captures the essence of what bureaucratic infighting is all about. And, interestingly, the FBI comes across as a very difficult organization which is quite prescient on Griffin’s part.
This story will continue into book three—The Hunters. One of the most enjoyable parts of this series is the detailing of interagency conflict between Homeland Security, CIA, FBI, Director of National Intelligence, Army, Air Force, etc. Griffin’s talent really captures the essence of what bureaucratic infighting is all about. And, interestingly, the FBI comes across as a very difficult organization which is quite prescient on Griffin’s part.
January 30, 2022
I enjoyed reading this book. It was exciting. It was a little dated though.
You have to know about the Oil-for-Food Program run by the United Nations. It allowed Iraq to sell a limited amount of oil in exchange for food and medicine for Iraq despite the economic sanctions imposed upon Iraq after the 1st Gulf War. That introduced incentives for corruption and when the corruption was exposed, people started covering their backsides... and other people disappeared (probably were killed) in order to protect the identity of higher level people.
The story: When UN officials start disappearing after a corruption scandal, it is suspected that very powerful people are silencing lower-level people before a link is made to them. In the midst of this chaos, the wife of a US Diplomat in Argentina is kidnapped. This is considered a terrorist attack on the United States. The President sends Charley Castillo (Presidential Agent) to make sure that the President gets the best and timely information about the investigation. Of course, Charley gets more involved in the investigation that he every thought he would.
Any problems with this story? Well... the main character, Charley Castillo, could not possibly exist, but once I suspended my disbelief about the character's background and simply accepted his starting point, the rest of the story played out well.
Any modesty issues? Yes. This is an adult novel. The F-word is used. Sex is not described, but it is discussed. One of the characters likes sleeping with underage girls. Another of the characters suggested chaining a man naked to a statue in public in a sexually suggestive way. (I'm cleaning it up a little. It was weird.)
The ending was a little quick. I would have liked more detail, but in the next book, "The Hunters," the author provides that detail, since the two novels overlap a little in the timeline.
As I recall, this is my second reading of this book.
You have to know about the Oil-for-Food Program run by the United Nations. It allowed Iraq to sell a limited amount of oil in exchange for food and medicine for Iraq despite the economic sanctions imposed upon Iraq after the 1st Gulf War. That introduced incentives for corruption and when the corruption was exposed, people started covering their backsides... and other people disappeared (probably were killed) in order to protect the identity of higher level people.
The story: When UN officials start disappearing after a corruption scandal, it is suspected that very powerful people are silencing lower-level people before a link is made to them. In the midst of this chaos, the wife of a US Diplomat in Argentina is kidnapped. This is considered a terrorist attack on the United States. The President sends Charley Castillo (Presidential Agent) to make sure that the President gets the best and timely information about the investigation. Of course, Charley gets more involved in the investigation that he every thought he would.
Any problems with this story? Well... the main character, Charley Castillo, could not possibly exist, but once I suspended my disbelief about the character's background and simply accepted his starting point, the rest of the story played out well.
Any modesty issues? Yes. This is an adult novel. The F-word is used. Sex is not described, but it is discussed. One of the characters likes sleeping with underage girls. Another of the characters suggested chaining a man naked to a statue in public in a sexually suggestive way. (I'm cleaning it up a little. It was weird.)
The ending was a little quick. I would have liked more detail, but in the next book, "The Hunters," the author provides that detail, since the two novels overlap a little in the timeline.
As I recall, this is my second reading of this book.
October 15, 2020
This feedback won't help the author as he has passed on, but here is why it didn't get 5 stars:
WAY too much repeating of past things, either plot from the first book in the series, or what others have said in this book, so I figure maybe 10% or so of the book is just repeated information, which wastes the readers time.
The bureaucratic BS and childishness among what are supposed to be professionals and people who are making the country seem safe. Maybe if this were in today's political era I might consider it a satirical jab at the current president. But for the time he wrote it, I think it was just bad writing. Maybe this was his son writing?
Lastly, the ending. It seems Karl goes in circles again and the resolution is wrapped up in a bow in 20 pages? Fuck that. Seriously, this had the potential to be a kickass story, or a cliffhanger where in the next book he goes after the agents of another government and shows them not to mess with America. Sadly, he isn't at the level of Clancy for the suspense/mystery part of his writing. WEB's strengths are in the characters, and maybe sponsorship deals from AMEX, Famous Grosse and Brooks Brothers.
WAY too much repeating of past things, either plot from the first book in the series, or what others have said in this book, so I figure maybe 10% or so of the book is just repeated information, which wastes the readers time.
The bureaucratic BS and childishness among what are supposed to be professionals and people who are making the country seem safe. Maybe if this were in today's political era I might consider it a satirical jab at the current president. But for the time he wrote it, I think it was just bad writing. Maybe this was his son writing?
Lastly, the ending. It seems Karl goes in circles again and the resolution is wrapped up in a bow in 20 pages? Fuck that. Seriously, this had the potential to be a kickass story, or a cliffhanger where in the next book he goes after the agents of another government and shows them not to mess with America. Sadly, he isn't at the level of Clancy for the suspense/mystery part of his writing. WEB's strengths are in the characters, and maybe sponsorship deals from AMEX, Famous Grosse and Brooks Brothers.
October 30, 2020
Once again W.E.B. Griffin has given us an action-packed thriller, this time involving Charlie Castillo, an Army Major who works as a Secret Service agent reporting directly to the President. He has the charter to do whatever it takes, generally clandestinely, to accomplish something recognized by the President as a threat to United States or its interests. Castillo is extremely talented, and is adept at assembling a team to execute whatever actions are necessary, legal or not, to accomplish his mission from the President. This one involves tracking down the person or persons behind the kidnapping of an American diplomat's wife in Buenos Aires, and his subsequent murder, along with other nefarious acts. As usual with on of Griffin's thrillers, it is nearly impossible to open to any page in the book and not find some action underway, or within a page of some action. The characters tend to be a bit shallow and stereotyped, but the real enjoyment in these books is the nearly non-stop action.
January 20, 2019
Something I’ve noticed about W.E.B. Griffin over the years is that he’s obsessed with writing extremely wealthy characters. They appear in all his novels and whether they are self-made or inherit their money, they are always extraordinarily competent. Not sure where this love affair with the superrich comes from, but it works in this novel where a special forces major on loan to the Department of Homeland Security is taxed by the president with locating a hostage kidnapped in Argentina. Of course, the mission proves to be much more complicated than that—it’s a Griffin novel after all—but it’s an entertaining and probably educational look at how the government bureaucracies work (and don’t work together very well). It’s also a good adventure in which clues to the mystery are given to the reader (because we see more than the protagonist) without making our hero look dumb. I don’t like this series as much as I enjoyed the Corps but this was a decent novel.
May 28, 2017
Well, the main character, Charley, is a fun guy to watch as he travels the U.S., Germany, Austria, Hungary, Argentina and Uruguay. The multi-talented Army Major who is the problem solver for the U.S. President stumbles through to solve issues with the Ambassador in Buenos Aires. The murderers are well-supplied and professional killers. Charley in his dual citizenship and birth names of Karl/Carlos makes errors, but because of his good abilities and the favored position he is in with so many officials, he resolves the problem. Ethics, legality and justice are often just the lucky results of fate. This novel, as compared to the first, is not as filled with footnotes and definitions of legal anagrams. There are a few explanations without the footnotes. I'm still learning military processes.
Another wordy, but enjoyable story.
Another wordy, but enjoyable story.
November 19, 2025
finished 18th november 2025 good read three stars i liked it no less no more kindle library loaner have read many from griffin w.e.b. and have enjoyed them all this one #2 in the series and since i'm about 10% into #3 i'd suggest reading them in order. #3 covers some of the same ground that ended #2 and then some. entertaining read, a bit tedious at times as characters discussed how an event...a funeral spectacular...will proceed as well as a number of other events. one definitely gets a feel for the playground atmosphere of big boy politics as more than one character is more than aware of their standing in the world. and nice, too, that we don't hear what side of the political aisle a president and cabinet reside. along with snide asides intended to marginalize real world people and readers while stroking off the home team.
November 24, 2018
The good - it was inexpensive.
The bad - everything else. The plot was all over the place, almost like two separate books. The development apparently required long, clumsy history lessons. The protagonist was supposed to be a badass. It may be the first novel ever where the hero never fired a shot, threw a punch or even got off a good one-liner. I struggled to finish this, hoping against all odds for a dramatic conclusion. Sorry. Dialogue? Unbelievably bad.
This was the first WEB Griffin novel I've read. He obviously has a lot of faithful readers but he took advantage of that faithfulness in this one. He won't gain a follower in me. Others have told me he has much better books. Perhaps, but my curiosity isn't great enough to find out.
The bad - everything else. The plot was all over the place, almost like two separate books. The development apparently required long, clumsy history lessons. The protagonist was supposed to be a badass. It may be the first novel ever where the hero never fired a shot, threw a punch or even got off a good one-liner. I struggled to finish this, hoping against all odds for a dramatic conclusion. Sorry. Dialogue? Unbelievably bad.
This was the first WEB Griffin novel I've read. He obviously has a lot of faithful readers but he took advantage of that faithfulness in this one. He won't gain a follower in me. Others have told me he has much better books. Perhaps, but my curiosity isn't great enough to find out.
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