The Remington Contract

Remington #2

by Raymond Obstfeld

The CIA needed a scapegoat; their mistake was that they chose Cliff Remington.A ruthless mastermind, CRONUS, has frozen the CIA’s powerful computer, leaving the U.S. virtually defenseless.An entire country’s fate lies at the hands of this maniac.CRONUS demands the US hands over the chief of the CIA — who alone shares the shattering secret of The Junkyard Dogs.The CIA needs a whipping boy, a pawn to flush out CRONUS — and to die with him. But Cliff Remington knows the game of survival … and the blood rules it takes to win.It’s time to get revenge once and for all on the organisation that has tried to take him down time and again.But can Remington escape the evil machinations of the CIA and of CRONUS?Or will Remington’s Contract finally be terminated?

Paperback

First published November 28, 1988

About the author

aka Laramie Dunaway, Jason Frost, Carl Stevens

Raymond Obstfeld is a writer of poetry, non-fiction, fiction, and screenplays as well as a professor of English at Orange Coast College. He lives in California.

Obstfeld has authored or co-authored nearly 50 books. Since 2007, he has been co-author to eight books with NBA basketball legend, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Obstfeld has twice been nominated for the NAACP Image Award, having won once. He has also been nominated for an Edgar A. Poe Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Dead Heat.Early in his writing career, Obstfeld wrote under several pseudonyms (Pike Bishop, Carl Stevens, Jason Frost) because he wrote different genres. After writing over a dozen thrillers, Westerns, and occult novels, he decided to return to mainstream literary fiction that he had written in graduate school. Because he’d already achieved some fame as a mystery writer, he decided to write his new novel under the name Laramie Dunaway. The novel, Hungry Women, was written from the points of view of four women friends. It was published by Warner Books without anyone at the publishing house knowing Obstfeld was a man. The novel went on to great success, being published internationally. Laramie Dunaway published two more novels before informing Warner of his gender. The publisher decided to publish Obstfeld’s next novel, Earth Angel, under his real name.

Reviews

[Bryan Brassfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though not as good as the first book, Remington Factor, this is a decent follow up. Remington is trying to start a new life as a husband and stepfather. He’s also taken a new job as a security consultant. It doesn’t take long before Remington is dragged back into things when a rogue ex CIA (Cronus) agent shuts down a super computer that disables the US’s defenses. He’s forced into finding Cronus and has to deal with double crosses, an elite commando squad with a vicious and tragic past (The Junkyard Dogs) and a hermaphrodite assassin!

We also get to learn a little more of Remington’s past (we find out how he got the scars on his body mentioned in the first book) and there’s a pretty big shocker a little before the 200 page mark that I didn’t see coming. The book also isn’t as gory and over the top violent like the first book.

I wouldn’t have minded seeing one more Remington adventure.