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Kirk McGarvey #18
Retribution
David Hagberg's New York Times bestselling Kirk McGarvey series continues in Retribution, with a deadly mission to take down a monstrous serial killer
On May 1, 2011, a team of twenty-four members of US SEAL Team Six swooped down on the compound of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Their mission, code-named Neptune Spear, was to find and kill the terrorist leader. The mission was a success.
Since that day, elements of the government of Pakistan have harbored a deep hatred for the SEALs who violated their sovereign territory. Now they've hired a team of German assassins to kill all twenty-four of the ST6 operators…and only one man stands a chance of stopping legendary former Director of the CIA Kirk McGarvey.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
On May 1, 2011, a team of twenty-four members of US SEAL Team Six swooped down on the compound of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Their mission, code-named Neptune Spear, was to find and kill the terrorist leader. The mission was a success.
Since that day, elements of the government of Pakistan have harbored a deep hatred for the SEALs who violated their sovereign territory. Now they've hired a team of German assassins to kill all twenty-four of the ST6 operators…and only one man stands a chance of stopping legendary former Director of the CIA Kirk McGarvey.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
349 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 6, 2015
46 people are currently reading
185 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 - 30 of 30 reviews
February 11, 2018
Not as good as many of the Kirk McGarvey novels, but not bad either. Aptly named, everyone is seeking retribution in this novel: from the Pakistani military, trying to kill the Seal Team 6 members who killed Osama bin Laden (Neptune Spear); a German assassin squad, led by the ex-wife of an abusive Seal commander, who wants to punish the US; Kirk McGarvey and a German agent, who seek to thwart the murder of two Seal Team 6 members from Neptune Spear and their families; and the wealthy wife of the Pakistani cut-out, who wants McGarvey's death, after her husband is killed. The spineless CIA and U.S. political leadership will not help, leaving McGarvey, Otto and Pete to solve the problem.
August 14, 2020
I usually like Hagberg's books. But I found the premise of this weak. I doubt Pakistan cared that much about the raid that took out Bin Laden; in fact, they were probably complicit in giving him up. Unable to get past that suspension of disbelief was difficult. Additionally, some of the SEALs involved have been so public about their participation, it seems any assassination plot would quickly become top news.
January 19, 2015
CIA Special Ops/spy Kirk McGarvey jumps the shark in the latest installment of this long running and otherwise excellent thriller series. The Pakistani ISI hires out a team of retired German Spec Forces to assassinate the members of the mostly retired Seal Team Six in retribution for taking out OBL in Pakistan without prior approval. An interesting plot premise that quickly veers off the rails with cartoon like characters moving toward a disappointing bogus cliffhanger primarily designed, I suppose, to sell the next book in the series. Nice try but no thanks. Life is too short!
May 2, 2022
Hagberg was once one of my favorites, but he's overworked the McGarvey story as evidenced in this book--With a rather strained plot with McGarvey constantly risking his life recklessly over a rather small-ball threat and a somewhat cliff-hanging ending blatantly intended to market the next book in the series.
March 15, 2021
This was the first book I've read by him, so I'll give my review with a caveat: I don't know if this is how he writes, or, this is how he wrote this book. .....
My actual stars on this are 3.5. The story was good. The first thing I noted - and again I don't know if this is this particular book, or in general - are that the women characters are portrayed in a negative light - with one exception - and - she has a masculine name! I like my books neatly wrapped-up, with all the baddies having a comeuppance, which not only didn't happen - Kirk didn't figure out where the leak was, and that's troubling!
Again, it was certainly good enough for me to look for more books by this writer ('Castro's Daughter' is certainly an interesting title!) with hmmms.
My actual stars on this are 3.5. The story was good. The first thing I noted - and again I don't know if this is this particular book, or in general - are that the women characters are portrayed in a negative light - with one exception - and - she has a masculine name! I like my books neatly wrapped-up, with all the baddies having a comeuppance, which not only didn't happen - Kirk didn't figure out where the leak was, and that's troubling!
Again, it was certainly good enough for me to look for more books by this writer ('Castro's Daughter' is certainly an interesting title!) with hmmms.
June 30, 2023
McGarvey's pretty much king of the world now.
Tells other people what he's going to do rather than taking any orders.
More Mitch Rapp than the old McGarvey.
Dialog has some weak spots but otherwise good writing.
And McGarvey's still cool.
Tells other people what he's going to do rather than taking any orders.
More Mitch Rapp than the old McGarvey.
Dialog has some weak spots but otherwise good writing.
And McGarvey's still cool.
August 26, 2018
The king of plots with "Retribution" from all kinds of groups and governments.
April 27, 2019
New series for me. CIA related spy-action novel. Moved quickly. I’ll probably read another novel from this series.
April 18, 2020
A Pakistan sponsored hit team is going after the SEAL team that took out bin laden. McGarvey is in the way. Nuff said
April 12, 2022
Liked it overall. Felt the ending was rushed.
May 2, 2016
Retribution, by David Hagberg, is a fiction story based on the real Navy Seal Team 6 that killed Osama Bin Laden. The story setting is 4 years after the raid on Bin Laden. As retribution, the Pakistani government sent German assassins to find and kill all of the Seals involved in the killing of Bin Laden. One of the Navy Seals was attacked, but he escaped and was able to alert all of the others. They grouped up and came up with a plan on how to survive and avoid being assassinated. Seal Team 6 is now in danger and has to fight back in order to stay alive. Kirk McGarvey, the legendary former director of the CIA, is the beast of this story. David Hagberg has written 20 books where the main character is Kirk McGarvey. Retribution is the 18th book in the series with McGarvey. This is the first McGarvey book that I have read.
This book had an amazing amount of detailed, very descriptive dialogue which makes the reader feel like they are actually experiencing the events. Unfortunately, there was really no reflection by the different characters in the book. It is understandable that an adventure book about the army would have a lot of dialogue, but I believe some character reflection would have made the story more insightful. It also doesn’t allow the reader to know much about what the characters are thinking and feeling. Hagberg could have helped all of the readers gain a deeper connection with each character, especially McGarvey, if he had given more background on their lives and included more reflection. For example, Hagberg says that McGarvey is a former director of the CIA and describes him and his past in about 3 paragraphs. As the main character in the book, I would want to know a little more about him so I could relate to him better throughout the book. Since the book is the 18th in the series, the author probably didn’t want to take the time to go into great detail about McGarvey because other people who have read those other books know all about him. But, since this is my first book, I wanted to know more.
My opinion on Retribution is that the plot was very confusing at times. There were so many characters that it was hard to keep them all straight because the author didn’t develop them enough. But, then there would be a moment where the author would help me get back on track with the story by giving more descriptions on what was happening. To me this book could have had a lot more potential if there was less dialogue between all the characters and more description on what was going on. On the other hand, it was very exciting and very believable. II had a hard time remembering that it was fiction because the Navy Seal characters were based on real people.
Overall, the reviews on Amazon, GoodReads and other websites give the book between a 3.9 and 4.5 rating. Most of the reviewers like the action adventure and the McGarvey character. Most reviewers have read the other books in the series and don’t think Retribution is the best one. There were lots of different characters in the story but only a few of them were well developed throughout the whole book. Each reviewer either loved the book or thought it wasn’t as good as the other McGarvey books. As a reader who was in between, I liked the adventure and drama, but I didn’t like how frustrated I got trying to follow the plot. I think I was often confused because this was my first McGarvey book and I wasn’t used to all the dialogue the author used. I also didn’t know much about McGarvey because I didn’t read any of the other books. Maybe if I had read the others, I would have liked Retribution better because I wouldn’t have gotten so confused in parts.
To wrap up the book, I liked the main character and all the adventure. It was a very believable story even though it was made up. I think the author was writing this book thinking that the reader had read some of the other books because he did not take the time that he should have taken to develop the story and characters in this book. But maybe for someone who had read the other books, that is OK. For me, it made it hard to follow the story at times. I would recommend this book but I would tell people to first read some of the other McGarvey books before you read Retribution so that you understand who McGarvey is and get used to the author’s style of writing.. It’s like reading the last book of the harry potter series first.
This book had an amazing amount of detailed, very descriptive dialogue which makes the reader feel like they are actually experiencing the events. Unfortunately, there was really no reflection by the different characters in the book. It is understandable that an adventure book about the army would have a lot of dialogue, but I believe some character reflection would have made the story more insightful. It also doesn’t allow the reader to know much about what the characters are thinking and feeling. Hagberg could have helped all of the readers gain a deeper connection with each character, especially McGarvey, if he had given more background on their lives and included more reflection. For example, Hagberg says that McGarvey is a former director of the CIA and describes him and his past in about 3 paragraphs. As the main character in the book, I would want to know a little more about him so I could relate to him better throughout the book. Since the book is the 18th in the series, the author probably didn’t want to take the time to go into great detail about McGarvey because other people who have read those other books know all about him. But, since this is my first book, I wanted to know more.
My opinion on Retribution is that the plot was very confusing at times. There were so many characters that it was hard to keep them all straight because the author didn’t develop them enough. But, then there would be a moment where the author would help me get back on track with the story by giving more descriptions on what was happening. To me this book could have had a lot more potential if there was less dialogue between all the characters and more description on what was going on. On the other hand, it was very exciting and very believable. II had a hard time remembering that it was fiction because the Navy Seal characters were based on real people.
Overall, the reviews on Amazon, GoodReads and other websites give the book between a 3.9 and 4.5 rating. Most of the reviewers like the action adventure and the McGarvey character. Most reviewers have read the other books in the series and don’t think Retribution is the best one. There were lots of different characters in the story but only a few of them were well developed throughout the whole book. Each reviewer either loved the book or thought it wasn’t as good as the other McGarvey books. As a reader who was in between, I liked the adventure and drama, but I didn’t like how frustrated I got trying to follow the plot. I think I was often confused because this was my first McGarvey book and I wasn’t used to all the dialogue the author used. I also didn’t know much about McGarvey because I didn’t read any of the other books. Maybe if I had read the others, I would have liked Retribution better because I wouldn’t have gotten so confused in parts.
To wrap up the book, I liked the main character and all the adventure. It was a very believable story even though it was made up. I think the author was writing this book thinking that the reader had read some of the other books because he did not take the time that he should have taken to develop the story and characters in this book. But maybe for someone who had read the other books, that is OK. For me, it made it hard to follow the story at times. I would recommend this book but I would tell people to first read some of the other McGarvey books before you read Retribution so that you understand who McGarvey is and get used to the author’s style of writing.. It’s like reading the last book of the harry potter series first.
April 24, 2016
Kirk McGarvey is back. Some one is after the seal six team operatives who took out Bin Laden. Good idea for a novel, but the ending was disappointing. A few twists and turns. Some were predictable, some where not. The end of the book set up the series going in two directions, or maybe both at the same time. I hope they lean heavy on the last two lines of the book for the next installment, as it seems much more interesting than the other option (I won't spoil it, but if you read the book it is pretty obvious. I feel that this series is starting to lose it luster. Hagberg still has some good ideas, but the idea seems to dry up and get stale before the novel's end. I also really didn't like the title. Not because the title was "Retribution", but because they used the word almost every chapter. Everyone was out for Retribution. Thank god I didn't read this book as a drinking game taking a shot every time I heard retribution. Overall an ok book. If you've read the rest of the series, you'll enjoy at least some of this book a lot. If you haven't read Hagberg before, go back to the earlier McGarvey novels.
March 18, 2016
I found the book to be highly fascinating, it talks in depth about how the SEAL Team Six raided Osama Bin Laden's compound in Pakistan -- the chapters aren't immensely long, but the book in itself has 370 pages .. the book is a page turner and it's full of action and you're always wondering what's going to happen next! I give this book four stars out of five, because I think the book would have been a lot better if it was told from the prospective of someone who was there when the SEAL Team Six raided Osama Bin Laden's compound; I like books about historical events, but I think it would have been a 5/5 if the novel was told from the prospective of someone who knew Osama Bin Laden or was there when it happened, but nonetheless, this book was thoroughly enjoyable
March 23, 2015
On May 1,2011 a team of twenty-four U.S.Seals from team 6 swooped
down on the compound of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
Their mission code name Neptune Spear was to kill the terrorist
leader which they did. Since that day elements of the Pakistan
Government have bared a deep hatred for the Seals who violated their
territory and now they have hired a team of German assassins to kill
all twenty-four of the Seals. Only one man has a chance of stopping
them the legendary former director of the CIA Kirk McGarvey.The
story wasn't to bad but I myself found it a little bit unbelievable.
down on the compound of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
Their mission code name Neptune Spear was to kill the terrorist
leader which they did. Since that day elements of the Pakistan
Government have bared a deep hatred for the Seals who violated their
territory and now they have hired a team of German assassins to kill
all twenty-four of the Seals. Only one man has a chance of stopping
them the legendary former director of the CIA Kirk McGarvey.The
story wasn't to bad but I myself found it a little bit unbelievable.
September 12, 2016
Not my favorite Kirk McGarvey story, but still a page-turner.
Everyone is seeking "retribution": the Pakistani ISIS group wants to kill each member of the Seal team that killed Osama bin Laden; the ex-wife of a CIA worker who now hates the US; the CIA, unofficially, through Kirk McGarvey, who wants to avenge the death of one of those Seals and his family at the hands of ex-German soldiers paid for and hired by the CIA worker's ex-wife!
Confusing. Nope. David Hagberg explains everything in his hard-hitting way. Plenty of excitement and an ending that will want the reader to read his latest novel, The Fourth Horseman (the 19th Kirk McGarvey novel).
Everyone is seeking "retribution": the Pakistani ISIS group wants to kill each member of the Seal team that killed Osama bin Laden; the ex-wife of a CIA worker who now hates the US; the CIA, unofficially, through Kirk McGarvey, who wants to avenge the death of one of those Seals and his family at the hands of ex-German soldiers paid for and hired by the CIA worker's ex-wife!
Confusing. Nope. David Hagberg explains everything in his hard-hitting way. Plenty of excitement and an ending that will want the reader to read his latest novel, The Fourth Horseman (the 19th Kirk McGarvey novel).
April 29, 2025
I still enjoyed this book, but it was definitely not as good as the other books in the McGarvey series. I actually think the whole series took a turn for the worse when McGarvey's family was killed off. It seem that every book since then has been a little worse than the one before. This book had a major continuity problem with the others. Kirk McGarvey killed bin Laden in an earlier book, yet this one has him protecting Navy Seals who killed bin Laden.
June 22, 2015
Meh. I don't plan to read any more by Hagberg. For a thriller, it was at times disgusting, boring (I skipped whole sections of pages without losing the story line or significant detail), and off-kilter, without ever really becoming a thrill ride. It couldn't even keep my mind off the monotony of the treadmill.
December 7, 2015
The eight book in David Hagberg's Kirk McGarvey series. McGarvey's job is to find a serial killer killing members of SEAL Team 6 that killed Osama bin Laden. The assassins are Germans hired by Pakistan.
Competent thriller though a bit far-fetched.
Competent thriller though a bit far-fetched.
January 7, 2015
Great Thriller about Pakistan going after Seal Team 6 that killed Bin Laden. Ex CIA Agent Kirk McGarvey is the only person who can stop this threat!!!
February 5, 2015
action packed, though a bit cliched.
Nice portrayal of war vets.
Note to self:- Must read more of this author.
Nice portrayal of war vets.
Note to self:- Must read more of this author.
February 7, 2015
Just the second book in this series that I've read. Definitely have to get started on the others in order.
February 12, 2015
Super!
June 19, 2015
Interesting plot line, fast paced, good read.
April 12, 2015
Latest in the Kirk MacGarvey series. Well paced. I had a problem with the final action scene, but overall interesting and well written.
June 5, 2015
Too predictable
September 12, 2023
Pretty good story but not much of a mystery, except for the ending which seemed to be a little short. Bad woman on the loose, maybe a thread for the next book.
September 9, 2024
Good, but kinda predictable.
March 29, 2015
McGarvey is getting old, but not slowing down a bit. A great book..
April 26, 2017
A lot of things about this plot doesn't make sense.....was betw two or three stars. decided on 3 simply only because it read well. (and of course considering other books in the series which is quite good compared to this one)
June 10, 2018
exultant read
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews