GUN POWER

By Mark Schorr

Pocket Books (1990)

Reviewed by Robert Thompson 6/29/90

An unfortunate choice of title and cover art disguises a fairly decent book, somewhat in the vein of a Lustbader or a Morrell.

Robert Stark is an ex-CIA operative now in private security consulting. He stumbles into a conspiracy among corrupt American politicians and generals, fanatic Japanese nationalists, amoral arms dealers, assorted terrorists and a few mercenaries.

Greed and some obscure geo-political plottings are at the root of the story, which is set primarily in the Japan, Thailand and the US.

Nothing really new here; in fact, the author freely has borrowed plots, sub-plots and even character names from other books in this genre. However, it is a fairly entertaining story, and several steps above the tripe that is usually found behind covers like the one on this book. It does not quite capture the atmosphere, cultural nuances and sharp characterizations that the above mentioned "masters" provide, it is still much better than one would expect from its appearance.

Like someone said: "You can't judge a book by its cover". In fact it had made me wonder what other entertaining books I have missed because the title and/or cover art was misleading.