The Hammer Of God

The Hammer Of God by Tom Avitabile published by Fiction Std; April 10, 2012; 404 pages.

I received the Advanced Reading Copy about a month ago. Originally I was intrigued by the premise and thought I would read this while I was recovering from surgery while I was in the hospital. Unfortunately the pain medication made me to groggy and I just couldn't concentrate and focus on anything.  I set the book aside for awhile and then returned to it later when I was coherent. I finished the book April 2nd but needed more time to finish processing what I read.

With America in the cross hairs of terrorists who don’t have to play by the rules, President James Mitchell needed an edge. That’s where Bill Hiccock’s Quarterback Ops Group, (QuOG) a top-secret operations cluster run out of the White House, comes in. They are the Commander-in-Chief’s personal “pointy end of the stick.” Given unprecedented power, these dedicated men and women cut through the cells and terror networks at home and abroad, unleashing the full force and determination of America across the world.

From psych-ops, where they terrorize the terrorists, to the pure brute force of going in hot, wet, and wild, QuOG uses innovative technology and on-the-spot improvisation to beat the bad guys before they know the game is on.

Hiccock fields his handpicked team of the “best of the best” in abilities and prowess: people like Brooke Burrell, who distinguished herself as an FBI agent, and now goes toe to toe with a terrorist mastermind; Bridgestone and Ross who cut through countries, culture, and killers like a laser through butter; former hacker for the mob, Kronos, an offbeat “techno-sapien” who practically mind-melds with any computer, network, or Internet backbone and manipulates it to do his bidding; Janice Hiccock, Bill’s brilliant wife, who provides insight into the human behavioral matrix; and Bill himself, whose keen analytical mind and propensity to somehow find himself in the line of fire befits an academic titan…who also happened to have won the Heisman Trophy.

Their current goal: find a loose suitcase nuke before it finds its way to a city near you and ends millions of lives.

It took some time but I was able to finish reading The Hammer Of God. I liked the idea, but felt that Mr. Avitabile could have done better by doing away with the first section titled Book I. All that section does is dwell on the back story of some minor characters. Personally I could have done with out that. I felt like I had to finish the book to give it a fair review. Book II started to get interesting and then all of a sudden I was thrown into a story about a previous war and some computer whiz kid working for NBC Studios as a copy boy and a stolen book that had been banned from print all copies destroyed. I couldn't figure out why that section was added to the story, I think it was to provide background information. All it did was add to my confusion. I'm sure some changes where made to the ARC before the final print, as to what they were I couldn't tell you. 

If you're big into thrillers the book may appeal to you.
I give this book ★★★☆☆