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Peter Newman #1
Mission Compromised
U.S. Marine Major Peter J. Newman discovers that a top military official is planning to betray his country by thwarting a mission to eliminate key Middle East terrorist leaders.
756 pages, Hardcover
First published September 28, 2002
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842 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 109 reviews
May 4, 2016
A very good thriller an exciting Christian fiction. Throughout the story is a number of Christian examples of God's attributes and God's people come to help in time of need. North shows that God is willing to save people and to help them, no matter what language they speak. It displays what I have already known, by being in foreign countries, God has His will being done. No matter where you go, you will find a Christian presence.
December 20, 2008
I really like that Oliver North's books are "real". Since I'm a military wife and I love the military, I really enjoy reading this series. The part I love best about this book (and the series) is that Col. North not only makes it a suspenseful military action story, but a great Christian read that focuses on faith and the power of prayer, even when faced with the hard decision of serving our country by killing those who would do us harm. It's not often that you can find good books with a good Christian theme. Warning though, if you are not fimilar with military lingo/culture, you might have a hard time following some parts of the book. Col. North has included maps on the inside to help you follow where the main characters are and what's happing where. He also has included a "dictionary" of all the military abrivations (ie. POTUS= President of the United States, SOP= Standard Operation & Procedures) because there are A LOT of abriviations all throughout the book.
March 25, 2017
'Mission Compromised' exceeded my expectations. I thought I'd run-into military jargon for weapons, equipment and military tactical strategies. Was I in for a most-pleasant surprise! I think of the Iran-Contra War when Oliver North's name comes-up, where, if I'm close to what actually occurred, the US backed-off from aiding the resistance forces fighting the communist regime, and paid dearly, and he ended-up being the 'fall guy' before Congress, eventually 'resigning' from service. This is a similar story where our forces are sent 'in harm's way' in the Middle East, only to be abandoned and eliminated. The enlightening lens of this fictional account that kept me glued-and-locked, was the role of God in the lives of men and women in various cultures and societies who acknowledged and gave themselves to Him... thoroughly enjoyed this series and just downloaded the sequel, 'The Jericho Sanction.'
November 21, 2012
A very good techno political thriller. I was much impressed with the intrigue on the various international players.
January 13, 2024
I am about to drop the most scathing review of two pages you've ever read in your life. I pulled up the book sample on Amazon for this. Don't read it it's terrible, I put 0 effort into it and I'm embarrassed to be posting it at all.
(Genuine apologies to all the people who love Oliver North and his stories, as well as Oliver North himself. I'm sorry I hated this book enough to drop it ten minutes after picking it up. Not sorry enough to not write this review, but still. Like what you like, I'm glad you enjoyed the book.)
Now, normally I never would have picked this up, but I was at my parent's and didn't have my phone on me and needed to kill a few minutes and this happened to be lying around. Hated it almost instantly. Not because of the story or characters or anything like that. Not because it just "didn't click for me". I take personal beef with the technicalities of how this scene was constructed. This is shoddy craftsmanship and I won't stand for it.
We start with a man named Pierre Sirois being assassinated via poison dart to the neck, followed by his killer and two accomplices making a clean getaway to dispose of the murder weapon by throwing it in the Seine. Seems like it's going to be pretty high action. A thrilling beginning to a high-paced book. Only no it's not, and screw you for thinking it would be.
The first paragraph is pretty decent. (Yes, we're breaking this down paragraph by paragraph, that's how many issues I found.) A bit choppy and stilted, but nothing I couldn't forgive if the rest of the scene weren't also like that. I swear there's not a drop of personality in the whole scene but I'm not going to get into that. The second paragraph, however, decides now is the best time to tell us about Pierre's age, his successful career, his lovely fiance, and her previous ties with the CIA. 25% of the first 100 words of the book are taken up by backstory.
25% of the first 100 words of a successful assassination attempt are taken up by backstory. Not even interesting backstory. We learn he's an investment banker. Cool, I guess? He's getting murdered right now. I feel like this info isn't particularly relevant at the moment. Maybe save that for later, once I can be bothered to give a shit.
Oliver North makes this same mistake several times in this scene, where he chooses a moment that's meant to be fast-paced and gripping as the perfect opportunity to completely stop the action to drop some random exposition. But it's fine. I'm fine. I'm not even mad about it. Not like I know teenagers who can insert information into a story more naturally or anything. It's not like this is storytelling 101: "don't bog the reader down with exposition when you could feed them this same information through characters learning it themselves later on when it's actually relevant" or anything.
Also he refers to the killer as a "shadowy figure", which is fine, and then in the next sentence as the "black-clad perpetrator", which is redundant and boring. It sounds like he pulled out a thesaurus and looked up cool words for "shadowy" and "figure" instead of just saying "the figure". It's not like we need additional physical descriptors. We already know he's shadowy (conjures up an association with the colour black so the reader is already primed to assume that's what the figure is wearing) and we already know he's a perpetrator. There are only three people in the scene, we would know what he meant by "the figure". We don't need the additional descriptors. All it does is add syllables and throw off the cadence. Extra syllables and words like "clad" and "perpetrator" are great for slow paced scenes, but for an action scene it feels like trying to drive with the parking brake half-engaged. It just drags things out. This sentence's get-up-and-go got up and went. Good thing it's not literally the sentence where the killer's making his getaway. That would have been super embarrassing, huh?
That would have been super embarrassing, huh?
Anyway, the killers make their getaway and throw the murder weapon off a bridge. Not sure why it's described like a car chase when they're not being pursued, but fine. I get he was going for high-octane, and a leisurely drive into the night wasn't going to cut it. Might have been more interesting if there was. Y'know. Actually a chase. But fine, I'll let it slide. Dramatic getaway while no one's watching. Sure.
The third paragraph is very important, because it tells us about two young lovers who happened to be making out under the bridge at the time the killer dropped the weapon into the Seine.
... Oh, no, they don't see anything. They hear a splash and then shrug and go back to what they were doing. The paragraph exists to tell us why these two nameless characters are not witnesses and aren't even slightly relevant to anything. The third paragraph is very important, because it's there to accomplish nothing and completely waste the reader's time.
Fourth paragraph the killers head for the highway, and Oliver North takes this moment to let us know that they just so happen to drive past the cemetery where Pierre will be buried. This is approximately where I realized that this book is not written in third-person omniscient POV as I had assumed up to this point. No, it's written from the author's POV. I know this for a fact because of-
Paragraph five through seven. Where the author tells the reader in great detail how it was the Perfect Crime and we should all be so impressed by how clever his villains are for planning it all. In #5, the police find the smoking wreck of the killers abandoned getaway vehicle. The cops decide it must have been, quote: "presumably stolen by drug dealers". (Instead of, say. Dismantled and sold for parts. Also who blows up a vehicle as a way to hide evidence? That's the least subtle thing they could have done. Honestly just drive it off a cliff or into a lake, that would have been less suspect.)
In #6 and 7, the EMTs take Pierre to the hospital and declare that he died of natural causes. Despite the fact that his fiancee watched it happen, and he died so quickly he was dead before he hit the ground. Name one natural cause that could kill a young man in his twenties that quickly, with no prior symptoms. Go ahead. I'll wait. You're really telling me no one suspected foul play?
Don't worry, no one finds the poison dart because it fell out of Pierre's neck when they were loading him in the ambulance. Super convenient. Can you imagine what would have happened if it didn't fall out and the medical examiner found it? Talk about a smoking gun, wowie. Good thing that didn't happen, or they might not have gotten away with it. I love how freaking convenient it is, and how it's being framed as being part of the plan all along even though they in no way could have predicted it wouldn't get stuck in his neck. It should have gotten stuck in his neck, he was shot with it.
Love how the killers staged the perfect crime and got away with it because the witnesses didn't see anything and don't matter and the cops didn't care to investigate the blown up car or the suspicious death of a high-profile individual and the silver bullet just fell out and conveniently got lost before anyone knew to look for it. Super convenient, all that. We're given a story of a perfect crime and the success of it is all hinging on convenience and chance.
It's just sloppy. And I wouldn't be as mad if at least I had fun reading it. If the characters had anything interesting going on or if the scheme was interesting. But it wasn't, they don't, and I didn't.
So.
Not saying I could have done better, but I could have done better. 18 year old me could have done better. I've seen preteens on Wattpad do better. This scene failed as a hook, and convinced me not to give the rest of the book a chance on the off chance this is reflective of the quality of the entirety. If I were North's editor I would have ripped him to shreds over this.
anyway dnf.
(sorry for writing this normally i wouldn't care but it's 1 am and I'm still mad about it LMAO like bro didn't even try, i could rewrite this to be actually interesting and hook the reader and still get all the important info across in like 15 minutes. i'm so angry and i don't care if i'm overreacting to this thing i don't care about i'm still so mad lol he didn't even try)
(Genuine apologies to all the people who love Oliver North and his stories, as well as Oliver North himself. I'm sorry I hated this book enough to drop it ten minutes after picking it up. Not sorry enough to not write this review, but still. Like what you like, I'm glad you enjoyed the book.)
Now, normally I never would have picked this up, but I was at my parent's and didn't have my phone on me and needed to kill a few minutes and this happened to be lying around. Hated it almost instantly. Not because of the story or characters or anything like that. Not because it just "didn't click for me". I take personal beef with the technicalities of how this scene was constructed. This is shoddy craftsmanship and I won't stand for it.
We start with a man named Pierre Sirois being assassinated via poison dart to the neck, followed by his killer and two accomplices making a clean getaway to dispose of the murder weapon by throwing it in the Seine. Seems like it's going to be pretty high action. A thrilling beginning to a high-paced book. Only no it's not, and screw you for thinking it would be.
The first paragraph is pretty decent. (Yes, we're breaking this down paragraph by paragraph, that's how many issues I found.) A bit choppy and stilted, but nothing I couldn't forgive if the rest of the scene weren't also like that. I swear there's not a drop of personality in the whole scene but I'm not going to get into that. The second paragraph, however, decides now is the best time to tell us about Pierre's age, his successful career, his lovely fiance, and her previous ties with the CIA. 25% of the first 100 words of the book are taken up by backstory.
25% of the first 100 words of a successful assassination attempt are taken up by backstory. Not even interesting backstory. We learn he's an investment banker. Cool, I guess? He's getting murdered right now. I feel like this info isn't particularly relevant at the moment. Maybe save that for later, once I can be bothered to give a shit.
Oliver North makes this same mistake several times in this scene, where he chooses a moment that's meant to be fast-paced and gripping as the perfect opportunity to completely stop the action to drop some random exposition. But it's fine. I'm fine. I'm not even mad about it. Not like I know teenagers who can insert information into a story more naturally or anything. It's not like this is storytelling 101: "don't bog the reader down with exposition when you could feed them this same information through characters learning it themselves later on when it's actually relevant" or anything.
Also he refers to the killer as a "shadowy figure", which is fine, and then in the next sentence as the "black-clad perpetrator", which is redundant and boring. It sounds like he pulled out a thesaurus and looked up cool words for "shadowy" and "figure" instead of just saying "the figure". It's not like we need additional physical descriptors. We already know he's shadowy (conjures up an association with the colour black so the reader is already primed to assume that's what the figure is wearing) and we already know he's a perpetrator. There are only three people in the scene, we would know what he meant by "the figure". We don't need the additional descriptors. All it does is add syllables and throw off the cadence. Extra syllables and words like "clad" and "perpetrator" are great for slow paced scenes, but for an action scene it feels like trying to drive with the parking brake half-engaged. It just drags things out. This sentence's get-up-and-go got up and went. Good thing it's not literally the sentence where the killer's making his getaway. That would have been super embarrassing, huh?
That would have been super embarrassing, huh?
Anyway, the killers make their getaway and throw the murder weapon off a bridge. Not sure why it's described like a car chase when they're not being pursued, but fine. I get he was going for high-octane, and a leisurely drive into the night wasn't going to cut it. Might have been more interesting if there was. Y'know. Actually a chase. But fine, I'll let it slide. Dramatic getaway while no one's watching. Sure.
The third paragraph is very important, because it tells us about two young lovers who happened to be making out under the bridge at the time the killer dropped the weapon into the Seine.
... Oh, no, they don't see anything. They hear a splash and then shrug and go back to what they were doing. The paragraph exists to tell us why these two nameless characters are not witnesses and aren't even slightly relevant to anything. The third paragraph is very important, because it's there to accomplish nothing and completely waste the reader's time.
Fourth paragraph the killers head for the highway, and Oliver North takes this moment to let us know that they just so happen to drive past the cemetery where Pierre will be buried. This is approximately where I realized that this book is not written in third-person omniscient POV as I had assumed up to this point. No, it's written from the author's POV. I know this for a fact because of-
Paragraph five through seven. Where the author tells the reader in great detail how it was the Perfect Crime and we should all be so impressed by how clever his villains are for planning it all. In #5, the police find the smoking wreck of the killers abandoned getaway vehicle. The cops decide it must have been, quote: "presumably stolen by drug dealers". (Instead of, say. Dismantled and sold for parts. Also who blows up a vehicle as a way to hide evidence? That's the least subtle thing they could have done. Honestly just drive it off a cliff or into a lake, that would have been less suspect.)
In #6 and 7, the EMTs take Pierre to the hospital and declare that he died of natural causes. Despite the fact that his fiancee watched it happen, and he died so quickly he was dead before he hit the ground. Name one natural cause that could kill a young man in his twenties that quickly, with no prior symptoms. Go ahead. I'll wait. You're really telling me no one suspected foul play?
Don't worry, no one finds the poison dart because it fell out of Pierre's neck when they were loading him in the ambulance. Super convenient. Can you imagine what would have happened if it didn't fall out and the medical examiner found it? Talk about a smoking gun, wowie. Good thing that didn't happen, or they might not have gotten away with it. I love how freaking convenient it is, and how it's being framed as being part of the plan all along even though they in no way could have predicted it wouldn't get stuck in his neck. It should have gotten stuck in his neck, he was shot with it.
Love how the killers staged the perfect crime and got away with it because the witnesses didn't see anything and don't matter and the cops didn't care to investigate the blown up car or the suspicious death of a high-profile individual and the silver bullet just fell out and conveniently got lost before anyone knew to look for it. Super convenient, all that. We're given a story of a perfect crime and the success of it is all hinging on convenience and chance.
It's just sloppy. And I wouldn't be as mad if at least I had fun reading it. If the characters had anything interesting going on or if the scheme was interesting. But it wasn't, they don't, and I didn't.
So.
Not saying I could have done better, but I could have done better. 18 year old me could have done better. I've seen preteens on Wattpad do better. This scene failed as a hook, and convinced me not to give the rest of the book a chance on the off chance this is reflective of the quality of the entirety. If I were North's editor I would have ripped him to shreds over this.
anyway dnf.
(sorry for writing this normally i wouldn't care but it's 1 am and I'm still mad about it LMAO like bro didn't even try, i could rewrite this to be actually interesting and hook the reader and still get all the important info across in like 15 minutes. i'm so angry and i don't care if i'm overreacting to this thing i don't care about i'm still so mad lol he didn't even try)
June 20, 2019
If you choose to read this book, you need to know that there is A LOT of military jargon used. I survived and I am fairly clueless when it comes to all the abbreviations used to describe life in the armed forces. However, I ALMOST quit reading. This is a 600 page book and by page 200 I felt like the author was still setting up the story and the characters. Oh my gosh! Get on with it! I persevered and was rewarded with some intense action scenes, heinous treachery, and a frantic manhunt. The SECOND half of the book flew by. How much of this book was actually fiction and how much was Oliver North telling the "real story"? I don't know. Makes you wonder. Unexpected content: blatant and frequent Christian preaching. I AM a Christian, so I didn't object to the doctrine, but it seemed incongruous in a military thriller. If I could suggest one thing to the author to improve his writing, it would be to learn how women REALLY talk to one another. Wow. His conversations between women were just awful. Women don't generally giggle. We laugh. The women in this story are simply caricatures of what, apparently, Oliver North thinks women are really like. If the author pared down his story building, disposed of the preaching, and created believable women characters, this book would be 4 stars. As is, I give it 3 stars.
August 6, 2017
First in a series of four books. Great story line. Book starts a little slow as it builds up the characters and the plot. Second half of the book is filled with action and ending left me wanting more. Now I am reading the second book, "The Jericho Sanction." Oliver North is worth the reading.
September 12, 2016
This could have been so much better. Fewer sermons and more editing could have added two more stars.
September 7, 2018
When you're reading a novel written by a retired Lieutenant Colonel and he has written himself into the story by name, you have to wonder how much of the story is actually fiction. Oliver North has done just that. And, the story is contemporary and includes the names of some real historical figures. So, the intrigue level shoots up considerably.
Peter J. Newman is a Marine who is selected to head up a secret assassination squad consisting of special forces personnel from the USA and UK. The unexpected detail is that they work for the UN. Their task - to eliminate international figures who consistently break international laws, rogue leaders of various nations or terrorist organizations.
The story is fairly straightforward, as North gives us the point of view of characters on various sides of the situations. This keeps the story pressing forward and keeps the agendas of the various power players fresh in the reader's mind. As with any such story, Peter J. Newman is a man caught in the middle of the conflicts and agendas of several political puppet masters. The book's title informs the reader from the outset that the groups mission get compromised. How it all plays out is very interesting, flows well, and keeps a good pace.
Given North's experience with the military and spy services of several countries, the book is replete with detail - sometimes more than I felt I needed. Still, many readers will relish these details.
North's book is definitely Christian fiction, so know religious themes play an integral part of the story. I especially loved the way he brought in a non-denominational Christianity that focuses on living the Way of Jesus. The expression of this faith in characters from the Middle East was such sweet reading!
If you like military/spy stories with plenty of intrigue, this one has it. Enjoy!
Peter J. Newman is a Marine who is selected to head up a secret assassination squad consisting of special forces personnel from the USA and UK. The unexpected detail is that they work for the UN. Their task - to eliminate international figures who consistently break international laws, rogue leaders of various nations or terrorist organizations.
The story is fairly straightforward, as North gives us the point of view of characters on various sides of the situations. This keeps the story pressing forward and keeps the agendas of the various power players fresh in the reader's mind. As with any such story, Peter J. Newman is a man caught in the middle of the conflicts and agendas of several political puppet masters. The book's title informs the reader from the outset that the groups mission get compromised. How it all plays out is very interesting, flows well, and keeps a good pace.
Given North's experience with the military and spy services of several countries, the book is replete with detail - sometimes more than I felt I needed. Still, many readers will relish these details.
North's book is definitely Christian fiction, so know religious themes play an integral part of the story. I especially loved the way he brought in a non-denominational Christianity that focuses on living the Way of Jesus. The expression of this faith in characters from the Middle East was such sweet reading!
If you like military/spy stories with plenty of intrigue, this one has it. Enjoy!
December 29, 2019
Excellent book! I usually do not read fiction, but I am a Oliver North fan so I thought I’d try reading it. I wasn’t disappointed and look forward to reading more of his books. The subject is about a “Special Operations” joint US-British operation to “take out” several terrorists, including Osama Bin laden and Saddam Hussein. The mission is compromised by a member of the UN leadership (who is a Russian general) and the US National Security Advisor. Being retired military (USAF) with a background working at Hurlburt Field, Florida at HQ AFSOC (headquarters Air Force Special Operations), the plot, mission planning that would occur for this mission, etc, is the way it would work. There’s a side story regarding the main character (Peter Newman) and his wife Rachel’s troubled marriage and eventual reconciliation after both become Christians. All in all, a great book!
July 13, 2018
Couple fall in love, for her she didn’t know what to expect being a military wife, and moving every few years. Nor why they were moving, or what he was doing in the military. Notes seemed to be the only communication they had with her being a flight attendant. Things came to a head, for both of them when his brother was killed while in the service. The anger, led to more lying, revenge, till people came into their lives, giving them the message of Christ. It was packed with the military, a secret mission, and full of suspense to the end.
April 21, 2020
I don’t want to give this four stars but three is way too low so let’s call it 3.75 stars. The style in which it was written makes it easy to follow events that happen during this part of the Revolution. North uses Good descriptions that paint a picture of the hardships that these soldiers endured. When I was about 25 pages from the end of the book, I couldn’t imagine it ending so soon. It did, too abruptly for me. That really bothered me, I wanted it tied up better. I will read another Oliver North book if someone gives it to me!
February 23, 2022
The book starts off very promising. It grabbed my attention but then quickly gets bogged down with too much detail. At one point they are walking to Newman's new office and it takes 10 pages to describe to walk and all the security clearance. I started losing focus because nothing exciting happened between pages 10-100. Plus I must say the dialogue is corny. Very John Wayne tough guy characters and talk. Nothing wrong with that but cliche. 500 pages and easily could have been 350 without all the detail that added nothing to the story.
August 23, 2017
This was a first rate effort that should satisfy those that enjoy novels of political intrigue. Excellent plot and characters. I guess some readers were put off by the religious stuff but it didn't detract from the overall story and can be skipped over anyway. Hope to follow the rest of this series.
September 21, 2017
Good......Good......Good!!!!!!
This is a seriously well written book. The characters are well developed, the dialogue is easy to follow. The storyline is awesome. Very , very glad I found this series. Lost a bunch of sleep. But have thoroughly enjoyed these stories. Thanks, Oliver North, well done!!!!! Amarillo Turtle
This is a seriously well written book. The characters are well developed, the dialogue is easy to follow. The storyline is awesome. Very , very glad I found this series. Lost a bunch of sleep. But have thoroughly enjoyed these stories. Thanks, Oliver North, well done!!!!! Amarillo Turtle
September 3, 2025
Couldn’t finish it. Too much dense military jargon to show off how much the author knows, to the point of impeding readability. Too much backstory of minor character that interrupts the flow of the plot. Actually even the backstory of main characters is shoved in awkwardly so the flow is lost. Bad writing and bad editing.
February 28, 2020
I thought this was a well written book. My only issue was it felt a little long and provided a little more detail than necessary which slowed me down a little. The plot was very intriguing plus the ending was great!
July 20, 2021
I'm just getting reacquainted with this book, as well as the next two in the series. They were lost due to some unfortunate circumstances. I enjoyed it the first time that I read it and am enjoying it once again.
November 17, 2021
DNF. I like when author’s leave a little room for the imagination, which this book did not do. It was so overly detailed that I found it impossible to get into, and the dialogue was corny, very distracting. Overall not very well written despite its length.
July 23, 2022
This book was promising at first, but then delved too much into Christian sanctimony, instead of focusing on other parts of the character's personality, which I guess is not very developed if that's all it is.
August 20, 2018
Excellent. God honoring
Worthy book to read. Exciting and presents the Gospel clearly. I am glad I read it and am excited that there are more episodes
Worthy book to read. Exciting and presents the Gospel clearly. I am glad I read it and am excited that there are more episodes
April 2, 2020
Beautifully written. Thoroughly enjoyed.
April 7, 2020
Not a bad novel. I was taking an assignment at the White House and thought it would be fun to read. An interesting spy novel set in the DC area with a lot of intrigue.
April 20, 2020
I highly recommend this book. It talks about Faith.
October 3, 2020
I enjoyed it very much, was fast paced and very believable. Gets you roped in to read rest of series. Won’t spoiler the rest of the books, but have bought them all
November 22, 2020
Fantastic read. Interesting and thorough plot. Great military action and intriguing characters! I loved reading this book, and could hardly put it down!
March 13, 2023
Really enjoyed the book. Looking for the rest of the series.
February 6, 2024
This story takes you up to the very last sentence of the book. It is definitely a cliffhanger, one of the best books I have read in a long time
Displaying 1 - 30 of 109 reviews