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Executive Sanction
Betrayed by the political game, a brilliant, idealistic campaign manager now finds himself chosen by the CIA for an extremely sensitive and volatile national security operation. Caught in a world of clandestine affairs and high-tech espionage, he becomes the key suspect in an explosive murder case that could cost him everything, including his life!
476 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
26 people want to read
About the author
David Compton
8 booksLibrarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 30, 2022
This spy novel by David Compton was middle-of-the-road. Protagonist Greer Whitaker's path from a newly hired CIA agent to hero is not quite plausible but it is entertaining. Along the way, there are multiple characters, both good and bad and some in-between. There's also plenty of gruesome death, tantalizing sex and intrigue. Of course, it's also a love story.
So this novel has a lot of elements going on. I suppose it contains all the elements of plot, character, action and story arc that a good spy novel should contain. Still, it didn't keep me up at night, reading furiously to find out the next plot twist and who lived and who died. I'm not sure why that was the case with my reading of it. Perhaps because spy novels have to be fresh and with the times in order to be relevant page turners? Since this was written in 1996, that could well be the cause of my experience.
Anyway, I've wasted too many words on the story already. This book is a beach read, but only if you've exhausted a lot of other spy novels. And that's all I have to say about that.
So this novel has a lot of elements going on. I suppose it contains all the elements of plot, character, action and story arc that a good spy novel should contain. Still, it didn't keep me up at night, reading furiously to find out the next plot twist and who lived and who died. I'm not sure why that was the case with my reading of it. Perhaps because spy novels have to be fresh and with the times in order to be relevant page turners? Since this was written in 1996, that could well be the cause of my experience.
Anyway, I've wasted too many words on the story already. This book is a beach read, but only if you've exhausted a lot of other spy novels. And that's all I have to say about that.
March 12, 2022
Typical story of crime, politics, sex, murder and cover-ups relating to all of the above. Complicated layers of political bureaucrats involved in various schemes only for the sake of creating complicated layers was annoying. The whole book only furthers my suspicion of political figures.
January 11, 2015
Clever and entertaining story concept that gets bogged down in minutia and forgettable characters. When he wrapped up the story in the final pages, he described characters I had forgotten about or couldn't place in the story. Very weak ending. I also found much of the authors word usage awkward to the point I often had to reread passages to understand what he meant. That may have just been a stylistic issue with which others may not take issue.
The author seemed knowledge impaired when it came to physical issues and lazy when it came to research. He had his characters performing physically questionable or impossible feats. Little things like his mostly untrained protagonist giving a karate chop to the hand of a gun wielding and highly trained CIA operative sitting in the passenger seat of the car before quickly opening the door and pushing her out . . . all from the drivers seat. He had sunburned San Francisco, CA locals sitting in a park watching kids play basketball at 6 AM in early January (it's dark at 6 AM, cold in SF during the winter, and kids aren't out playing basketball at that time before school). He later had other people coming to San Francisco in early January and enjoying the warm CA sunshine like he thought San Francisco is in southern CA. The protagonist going into an electronic store and buying high power binoculars as well as a rifle, scope, and ammunition when he had only a false Canadian passport for identification . . all in CA (would not have legally happened even if such a store existed). He later used the binoculars to look into a top floor high-rise hotel window and was able to see what was on the television while the guy in the room sat on the side of the bed in his boxer shorts . . . all viewed from 1/2 mile out in San Francisco bay in a little rented boat (the angle would not have allowed this even if the binoculars where that good). He had the protagonist later use his scoped rifle in a shootout that took place INSIDE his little hotel room . . . and the cops never came. He had his protagonist buy a radio transceiver at a store and later use it to broadcast on wireless microphone frequencies . . another thing that wouldn't and couldn't happen because the radios are not readily available and wireless microphone frequencies are specifically selected to not be in the transmit range of radio communication transmitters. I could go on and on but I'm sure you get the idea.
These continuous and irritating small errors accumulated to the point they became a distraction for me. Still, I mostly enjoyed his protagonist and the basic story line. A solid edit and reduction of the story by 30% could have made it excellent.
The author seemed knowledge impaired when it came to physical issues and lazy when it came to research. He had his characters performing physically questionable or impossible feats. Little things like his mostly untrained protagonist giving a karate chop to the hand of a gun wielding and highly trained CIA operative sitting in the passenger seat of the car before quickly opening the door and pushing her out . . . all from the drivers seat. He had sunburned San Francisco, CA locals sitting in a park watching kids play basketball at 6 AM in early January (it's dark at 6 AM, cold in SF during the winter, and kids aren't out playing basketball at that time before school). He later had other people coming to San Francisco in early January and enjoying the warm CA sunshine like he thought San Francisco is in southern CA. The protagonist going into an electronic store and buying high power binoculars as well as a rifle, scope, and ammunition when he had only a false Canadian passport for identification . . all in CA (would not have legally happened even if such a store existed). He later used the binoculars to look into a top floor high-rise hotel window and was able to see what was on the television while the guy in the room sat on the side of the bed in his boxer shorts . . . all viewed from 1/2 mile out in San Francisco bay in a little rented boat (the angle would not have allowed this even if the binoculars where that good). He had the protagonist later use his scoped rifle in a shootout that took place INSIDE his little hotel room . . . and the cops never came. He had his protagonist buy a radio transceiver at a store and later use it to broadcast on wireless microphone frequencies . . another thing that wouldn't and couldn't happen because the radios are not readily available and wireless microphone frequencies are specifically selected to not be in the transmit range of radio communication transmitters. I could go on and on but I'm sure you get the idea.
These continuous and irritating small errors accumulated to the point they became a distraction for me. Still, I mostly enjoyed his protagonist and the basic story line. A solid edit and reduction of the story by 30% could have made it excellent.
June 27, 2012
This was a great book. A lot of twist and turns keep you guessing until the end.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews