Steve Martini è famoso per la serie di legal thriller dell'avvocato Paul Madriani. E' colpa mia se soltanto dopo una trentina di pagine mi sono accorto che questo non appartiene alla serie e non è nemmeno un legal thriller, genere di cui mi nutro saltuariamente. Ho proseguito ugualmente, scoprendo un thriller d'azione con un intrigo internazionale legato al commercio di armi nucleari.
Non male, una bella lettura di svago balneare.

Slow start but exciting end.

Couldn't finish it - it looked really good but . . .

I like it so far. It takes place in the San Jaun Islands, a place I'm familiar with, so that's always cool. the intrique was pretty good. High absurdity level, though. Thought the ending could have been handled better.

Overdone. Too many different points of view to get into characters. Too many "suspenseful" scenes to really get suspended.

Good story but heroine has annoying, inexplicable bouts of stupidity.

A good read. with some surprises.

This was a page turner about nuclear weapons in the US brought by the Soviet Union.

Good storyline. Definitely an action adventure book.

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/13327954

Good

Unusual thriller with international nuclear intrigue - suspenseful, but uneven plot...

We've read most of Martini's booklist, and frankly were somewhat surprised at the pure thriller aspect of this novel. While one expects a fair degree of "lawyering" in his (defense attorney) Paul Madriani series, Martini's non-series novels (like this one) still usually showcase a lawyer or two as the leading players. And while one observes that the leading lady in "Critical Mass", Jocelyn Cole, is indeed a one-woman law office, that role is almost incidental to the suspenseful plot that follows about two missing Russian nuclear devices. In an almost Clancy-like early part of the book, we're treated to alternating scenes of the devices out on the ocean, to a new mystery client visiting Cole, to a surprise explosion of a small plane with its pilot aboard. From there we're soon engrossed in a tale to identify the whereabouts of the bombs, complete with high-level political machinations to keep everything quiet under direct orders of the President himself (not so unlikely anymore!). The storyline proceeds to threaten the life of our leading lady and a new sidekick, Gideon van Ry, from a nuclear tracking institute; and before it's all over, a number of surprises conspire to amuse and entertain!

We might give this enjoyable book higher marks if were just a tad more plausible. While the basic premise of the old Soviet Union losing track or selling some of its old nuclear stuff is not that far-fetched, most of the action that follows, from the stealthy Navy Seal attack, to the multiple brushes with death that befall our heros, to the closing scenes near the Smithsonian are mostly pretty tough to swallow. While we agree with Martini's fan club that "Mass" is a worthwhile outing, we'd prefer he stick to legal topics he knows just a little more about - and leave the military skullduggery to Clancy et al!