As the second original novel based upon the hit TV series, 24 DECLASSIFIED: VETO POWER is just as pulse-pounding and breakneck-speedy as its predecessor, 24 DECLASSIFIED: OPERATION HELL GATE, which is to say it’s faithful to the feel of the show.
In VETO POWER, counterterrorist agent Jack Bauer (played by Kiefer Sutherland in the series) has spent several months undercover in a Timothy McVeigh-esque militia. As the daylong narrative begins, Jack arrests the militia leader, only to be told the country has bigger fish to fry, in the shape of a foreign terrorist cell on American soil, with something sinister up its sleeve. Meanwhile, the U.S. attorney general is blackmailing an influential female senator, threatening to expose her prostitute past in order to advance his personal political agenda on the nation. Before Jack’s day is up, all these activities thread together to form a formidable threat to the country, one he must stop as only he can.
Replacing HELL GATE’s Marc Cerasini (who will be back in February for the third novel, 24 DECLASSIFIED: TROJAN HORSE), author John Whitman makes a good point about Jack Bauer that explains the strong appeal of the character: that people mistake Bauer for the police, except he doesn’t have to play by the rules. On the show, Jack thinks nothing of cutting a guy’s head off with a hacksaw to get the job done, and that half-crazy, anything-goes sense of reckless abandon for the greater good carries over well into print. (Amusingly, Whitman also knows which side his bread his buttered, as he has one character request a TV be switched from CNN to FOX.)
VETO POWER strays from the show’s strict real-time format by placing a six-month-old flashback in the middle of the narrative, even though it could’ve easily been explained in a short conversation. Set as early as 2003, it also errs in continuity by having the Nina Myers still be on CTU’s side, even though she was unmistakably the villain by the end of the show’s 2001-02 season (assuming 24 doesn’t take place in the future).
But these are minor quibbles for what amounts to a pleasurable thrill ride. Besides, any story that manages to involve napalm bombs, electromagnetic pulse weaponry, Latino gangs and sexy strippers is a guaranteed good time.
Buy it at Amazon.
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