GHOST SNIPER – Scott McEwen with Thomas Koloniar
A Sniper Elite Novel,  Book 3
Touchstone
ISBN-13:  978-1-5011-2614-7
July 2016
Military Thriller

Mexico, China, Virginia – Present Day

Gil and his friend Crosswhite are in Paris looking for a particular storage unit.  Robert Pope, Director of the CIA, is watching them via a   drone when he sees them open the door.  He is immediately on the phone to them, asking what is in it, and told them to meet him in Paris the next day.  When they enter the unit the next day there are 200 bars of gold bullion.  The bullion becomes Pope's property, and he means to run the CIA the way he sees fit.

Six months later, Chance Vaught is in Mexico City as a special agent with the US Diplomatic Service and in charge of security for Alice B. Downly, the current “drug czar."  Meetings between the Mexican delegation and Alice now have to be at the Mexican Senate Building; but despite SUV's with bullet proof glass, four pickup trucks with Mexican Federal Police, and two pairs of motorcycles, they are attacked from all sides.  Alice runs out of the SUV and is immediately shot by a sniper in the middle of the street.  Chance's military training has him finding the sniper's location on a nearby building and he goes chasing after him.  He loses him on the roof of the building, but learns enough to know that he's a  gringo  sniper.  Unfortunately, Federales surround him and take him to Senator Lazaro Serrano, head of the Mexican delegation to fight drug trafficking and one of the three main drug suppliers in Mexico.

Gil has been sent to Liechtenstein to use his sniper rifle on Sabastian Blickensderfer because of his financial ties to Al Qaeda, but just as he fires, Sabastian's fiancée lunges forward and he misses, nearly killing her.  That night at the bar, Lena Deiss, Sabastian's fiancée, talks to Gil and quickly perceives he is some sort of soldier. They end up in bed together, and Lena rapidly realizes she is cancelling her wedding to be with Gil.

Drug cartel members are determined to shoot up the city of Toluca, after assassinating the Chief of Police.  Chance and Crosswhite come into town and quickly try to train the chief's brother, who is now in charge, and the other officers how to deal with these men with no compunction to kill.

Mike Ortega of the CIA is involved in the gradual disintegration of Mexico after a large earthquake hits Mexico City.

Hector Ruvalcaba is another powerful narcotics trafficker, in competition with Lazaro Serrano; will it be the CIA who will finally deal with him?

Hancock and his spotter, Jessup, are working their way across Mexico, taking any sniper work that pays. Jessup is worried; Hancock enjoys the killing too much and is getting more and more careless, mostly because he wants to stay behind and enjoy the mangled bodies that he so artfully blows apart.

Pope's main aide is Fields, but Fields likes to do things his own way.  Only Midori, who has been with Pope for many years, knows what is going on and gradually sees Pope losing his humanity and hiding their actions from the President of the United States. Wait, is he after the  gringo  sniper, or is the  gringo  sniper under Pope's orders?

Supposedly Gil is killed after driving off a bridge into the river in China; his girlfriend, Lena, is sent back to Switzerland and forgiven by Sabastian.

Will the  gringo  sniper ever be captured, or will he escape like the ghost they call him?

These are just some of the plot lines that Scott McEwen and Thomas Koloniar have written about, an intricate and well-drawn out story filled with awesome details about the military both here and in Mexico.  Advances in military hardware that most of us probably don't know exist are abundant, and it seems as if no one is what they seem to be, or are fighting on the side they appear to be supporting.  Even the CIA is not given special treatment; with enough money even the Director can fool Congress and the President that the people he is assassinating are terrorists and he is securing the safety of the country.  This story is told from multiple points of view like Gil, Crosswhite, Pope, the  gringo sniper, his spotter, several Mexican Police chiefs, Midori, Pope's trusted assistant, Fields, Vaught, and Mariana, another agent who decides that she might have to take things in her own hands because of what Pope has been doing.

Multiple secondary characters are found from Liechtenstein to China, to Mexico, to Langley, Virginia, all closely connected and maybe pawns of Pope, the puppet master, or under the control of the Mexican cartels.  How many people must die before the situation in Mexico is taken care of?

I was enthralled with GHOST SNIPER, with its short chapters, each one changing to a different location with different people; it's a fast paced and exciting story.  If you enjoy a different type of quick action packed novel with good guys who may be bad, and bad guys who maybe aren't so bad, GHOST SNIPER is a superior story dealing with the underbelly of the CIA, spying for our country, and how different governments in the world handle spies and those whom they don't want anyone knowing about.  Do yourself a favor and read this thrilling and electrifying story, and realize what the government can find out about all of us.

Carolyn Crisher