So often, books based on television shows such as 24 fail to capture the tone and texture of the television program. This one succeeds about 80% of the, which puts it a bit above the average TV adaptive work. Whitman successfully captures the tone and tenure of the series, even if the characters are often very much little more than a cliche cutout of a season of the TV show. In fact, Whitman breaks little, if any, new ground here, with a plot that was probably leftover from the TV series itself. There's blackmailing politicians (see a pattern) Jack's usual gruff manner, Terrorist plot twists, tricks, and schemes, bureaucratic blindness, and old relationships--- all such part and parcel of that which we saw in the program-- that this could almost, but not quite, have been a script...
Not that it is bad for there are some clever plot twists along the way and some decent action... however, there is a such a nagging feeling of deja vu that keeps the novel from being anything more than a fairly decent rehash and rising to a higher level.
A decent, and laudable effort that accomplishes what a TV tie-in book should do.. replicates the experience of viewing a season... however, nothing overly special...