Wet Work

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Pub Date 2 Jan 2020 | Archive Date 30 Jan 2020

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Description

Law enforcement agencies have chosen to ignore rather than investigate dozens of political figures and defectors who have died under mysterious circumstances. When a Democratic National Committee staff member is murdered before the presidential election, Washington, D.C. police is also uninterested in investigating the crime.

The President is well behind in the polls. Some powerful people want assurances that the President will never take the oath of office if he unexpectedly wins.

On Election Day, the Central Intelligence Agency Director uncovers treachery at the highest levels of his organization. A rogue group of senior intelligence officers may have exposed themselves for who they really are before disappearing with a secret experimental weapon. Mounting evidence suggests the President may be in peril but the Secret Service isn’t interested in conspiracy theories or implausible weapons with impossible capabilities.

Will CIA pilot Duncan Hunter save the President from a group of assassins?

Law enforcement agencies have chosen to ignore rather than investigate dozens of political figures and defectors who have died under mysterious circumstances. When a Democratic National Committee...


A Note From the Publisher

Mark A. Hewitt is a retired aviation executive, college professor, and military pilot. The ideas for his books spring from life experiences, his extensive international travel, and an admiration for the unique “quiet” spyplanes from the Vietnam War. He holds a master’s degree in National Security and Strategic Studies from the Naval War College and an MBA from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. His novels have been approved by the CIA’s Publication Review Board.

Mark A. Hewitt is a retired aviation executive, college professor, and military pilot. The ideas for his books spring from life experiences, his extensive international travel, and an admiration for...


Advance Praise

Approved by the CIA Publication Review Board

From an award-winning author, Mark. A Hewitt, praise for Duncan Hunter Thrillers:

“…a high-octane thriller that explodes off of the starter blocks and races top speed to the final scene.” –Authors Reading on Blown Cover

“Duncan Hunter is a great character… an excellent read.” –A Good Thriller on Special Access

“A great techno-thriller, part of a series, but standalone so you don't have to have read every preceding volume to follow the action.” –Pat Ingram Reviews, on Shoot Down

“Mark A. Hewitt has established himself as a great author.” –James J. Seals, Jr. on No Need to Know

“Mark A. Hewitt nails his fascination with spyplanes and the intelligence community’s development and use of aircraft.” –The International Spy Museum at L’Enfant

Approved by the CIA Publication Review Board

From an award-winning author, Mark. A Hewitt, praise for Duncan Hunter Thrillers:

“…a high-octane thriller that explodes off of the starter blocks...


Available Editions

EDITION Ebook
ISBN 9781684333608
PRICE US$8.99 (USD)

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Average rating from 6 members


Featured Reviews

Mark Hewitt has obviously done his homework–his research is exhaustive in the detail, operations, alliances, betrayals, tradecraft, and history. Laying a modern-day thriller over the top of this is not an easy task, but the author has done an exemplary job. The life of the president, the partisan work of the DNC, secrets in the CIA, and the machinations of other government and para-government organizations clash in an exciting thriller.

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Mark Hewitt presents the 5th book in his series headlining Duncan Hunter: a pilot for the CIA. The book opens at a point where Hunter destroys a field of marijuana via the use of computer aided weapons. And as in previous books he jumps right into more action. A plot discovered by the CIA director is discovered in which it appears likely that a rogue group of high level government officials have stolen and fled with a secret weapon. The weapon is unknown to most people and involves a gun that can be aimed, fired, and effective up to 10 miles from the target. The fleeing rogue officials are feared to want to assassinate the new, recently elected president of the United States and claim a reward for doing so from the Soviet Union.
Hunter goes right into pursuit of the officials aided by his wife, and also his daughter from a previous marriage who is coincidentally working for the CIA. Their hunt for the rogue group is hampered by the inability of the CIA to understand that a weapon unknown to them would have a feasible killing range of up to 10 miles and not be more than a weapon carried by one person.
The action takes place over a complicated mix of politics, trade craft, political realities and normal government functions giving the reader a very solid conspiracy theory novel and a couple of all night reads. The ending finds Hunter and his family on vacation but called upon by his supervisor to drop everything and get back to headquarters to move into another sequence of battle against America's enemies. No rest for the weary, but good reading material.

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Since the days of Stalin, politically based murder has been the Cold War’s dirty little secret. Neither side wants to investigate. Let the Russians kill their defectors, even if it occurs on US soil. Who cares.

A democratic staffer who assembles negative information on Republican opponents develops a conscious, steals information that is both vital and detrimental to Dem election tactics and decides to go public . . . then he gets murdered. DC police could care less.

Duncan Hunter is ex-CIA now DEA. His weapon of choice is a slow low flying nearly silent airplane. Been around since Vietnam, but Hunter has perfected its abilities that he has made into a stealth aircraft. And added some weapons that make him and his plane a serious threat to people who’d do harm to the US. Threats that come from religious fanatics and cartel heads alike. The plane can fire an air-based sniper rifle accurate out to more than a few miles. And a laser than can blind enemies by frying their eyeballs. He has three of these planes (where'd he get all his money?), the necessary ground crew (Bill Jones and Bill Smith), and (from an earlier book) has a daughter who graduated from the Air Force Academy who now uses that stealth plane to fry Mexican poppy fields. Yeah, an alpha family by DNA.

Hunter’s former boss at the CIA is on the way out. Election is coming up and the opposition candidate has a huge lead. He’s thinking somethings afoot somewhere in the Agency. Politics are getting in the way of protecting the country. He asks Hunter to find out what’s going on and who needs to be held accountable (and with a title like Wet Work, you know what ‘accountable’ means). The sitting President is at risk, too. But politics are at play even in the Secret Service.

This book's jacket blurb is interesting. It’ll draw in readers of political thrillers. Like me. The depth of detail around the book’s election season rivals what we are experiencing right now. Book characters are thinly veiled versions of current politicians. That may be a little too close for some. As such, it’ll have a political slant and this one slants to the right. Way to the right.

Politics aside, when you pick up a book at Barnes and Noble, the heft tells you something. Not so with a Kindle. You read and read and read and read and read and the counter at the bottom right corner of the screen barely moves. Unless you know how to convert Kindle location to pages, you don’t know. And this is a beast. Over 600 print pages. Long long long conversations over coffee and fajitas in an out of the way Mexican joint in Texas. Or again in DC. And again, in NYC. Incredibly detailed after action debriefs, yadda, yadda, yadda.

Now I’m of the opinion that if I pick up a book, I owe it to the author to finish it out of respect for the work required. And I did. But, man, this was a chore. Not because it was poorly written or researched. All that is first rate. Without question. First rate. It’s just so dang loooooooooong. I’m betting that at least 20-25% could’ve been cut without any loss to the storyline. This is Hewitt's fifth Duncan Hunter book. Wonder it they are all this big.

Be forewarned. This is good, but it is a commitment.

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