Good story with all too believable politics

This was a very good story with a storyline that rings true to modern American politics. I would have given it four stars but it was about one hundred pages too long. Tighter editing would have made it a better story.

Steve Martini's books are really good thrillers, often with political overtones, fast moving and really keep your interest, and this one is no exception. It presents a really scary scenario, wherein a nuclear device is stolen from Russia and brought to the United States. There are a lot of characters, and it's sometimes a little difficult to remember who is who, but it's a very compelling story, and one that I certainly hope never occurs.

I enjoyed this book and the story line; the characters were a little hard to know well but I liked the premise. I didn’t really relate to the geography but it was a good read.

Steve Martini is definitely an accomplished writer who is a master in story-telling. I loved this story for its intregue and suspense. It kept me turning the pages, even though you knew that the end would be a happy one. His attention to detail regarding the electronics and weaponry is amazing and his characters are very well portrayed.
It was definitely a book I didn't want to put down.

Interesting premise and some interesting characters-many, many missed opportunities in this novel-instead the novel is cliched thriller-for a 50 cent thrift store purchase, it was not a bad hour and a half read-

Small-town lawyer is being used by the plotter of a nuclear explosion in Washington DC. Never clear who the real force behind the bomb is, though Iraq is suspected to be hiding behind the efforts of a right-wing militia group in the US.

Really tight, fast paced and well researched thriller. Main characters were a little cookie cutter, but thrillers aren't really about the characters. Characters are secondary to plot, and Critical Mass has a terrific plot, and a terrifying plausible one at that. Less plausible was the female lawyer sliding pretty comfortably into combat mode, using weapons etc, and not seeming to suffer any stress. I'm not sure regular people would react like her in the situations in which she found herself. Anyway, that's minor negative. The suspense towards the end was incredible...I didn't know what was going to happen. I loved it. Even the preponderance of technical information about weapons and scientific stuff did not overwhelm me as it does in some novels of similar ilk. Hats off to Steve Martini from this reader.

A bit dated (1999), but good stand-alone Martini adventure. Stolen nuclear warhead to be used by domestic terrorists.

Too much BS

I was three chapters into this before I realized, “hey, this isn’t a Paul Madriani book!”. But it’s fine, because it was still a fun read. If you’ve read Sum of all Fears by Tom Clancy then you’ve already read this book, but I still enjoyed it. Is it a bad thing that I was rooting hard for the bad guys? I liked the protagonists, but the rest of the “good guys” left a lot to be desired. Anyway, I’m running out of Madriani books so I ordered everything else Martini has written. In fact there are now only three of his books total that I haven’t read.

I had expected this to be dated and cliche but its nuclear plot is surprisingly topical, the characters engaging and the storytelling is exciting. A well written thriller.

I hard a hard time getting focused on this book. Hence the many days it took me to read it.
I'm not saying it was a bad book. It was suspenseful and had lots of action. And, surprisingly enough, it was actually believable.
I could see this book become a movie. Surprised it isn't yet.
I really liked the character, Jocelyn. She was strong and didn't take any crap from anyone. I liked the relationship between her and Gideon.
This isn't a 3 or a 4 because it was boring in parts and it was sometimes hard to get thru the detail. I felt like it was bogged down with too much background noise.
The ending, I thought, was really good. It didn't disappoint me like most books do. And it didn't end abruptly.
So, overall this book was pretty good. It just didn't keep my attention from beginning to end.