Mission Compromised
By Oliver North 

    In spite of its massive length (637 pages), Oliver North's Mission Compromised is, for the most part, a really entertaining novel whose momentum is somewhat slowed only by the author's desire to impart his strong beliefs in Christianity-espoused by a number of the colorful characters that populate the story. Nevertheless, this is an un-putdownable book. The main character, Major Peter Newman, is tapped by the powers that be as Director of the secret Special Projects Office of the National Security Agency whose purpose is the assassination of terrorists.

     North and co-author Joe Musser have blended fact and fiction so skillfully here that it is very difficult to know what's real and what isn't. In fact, North himself is a character in the book, and that definitely makes the reader wonder exactly how this is a novel. Did all the related events actually happen? Other characters in the book, either mentioned or involved in the action itself include Qusay Hussein, Saddam's son (now dead, as we all know), Saddam himself, and Osama bin Laden, among others. Many people know that the United States did have the opportunity to rid the world of bin Laden several years ago-1995, to be exact-and essentially blew it. This novel chronicles the events, but whether or not they are real as told here is difficult to say.

     Prior to the action comprising the focus of the story here, Newman's brother, also in the military, has been killed in the ill-fated American incursion in Somalia in 1993 at Mogadishu. Newman vows revenge on the Somalian warlord responsible, and this was one of the criteria used to select him for his Special Projects post-previously held by none other than Oliver North. While his initial assignment is Somalia, greed and corruption shift the action to the Middle East, where the planned meeting of several terrorist chiefs (bin Laden among them) is the target for an American raid. But Newman himself is eventually targeted as a terrorist in a fascinating turnabout of events.

     If you don't mind being occasionally deluged with proselytizing messages about the power of Christianity, this is a fast read, a great thriller, and very satisfying.