Review of SLEEPING DOGS: THE AWAKENING

These Dogs of War are unusual men discovered, recruited, trained and deployed to wreak havoc during the Gulf War, twenty years before this action novel opens. Genetic mutations had combined to make them faster, stronger, smarter than ordinary men, and these strengths are honed by the founders of a special operations military group kept secret during the war and disbanded after. A plane crash soon after seemed to kill the last half-dozen of them.

The novel pits a right-wing Society of Adam Smith with adherents throughout the U.S. government and military establishments against a Federal administration that is left-wing, supported by the usual factions and a Soros-like billionaire, one who in the novel is controlled by Russian intelligence operatives.

Rather than “let sleeping dogs lie,” the founders of the original special operations unit bring them out of retirement to thwart the assassination of the leftist President designed to install an even more radical successor by pinning the murder on conservatives. Along the way, we get politics, romance, exciting brawls, and small-unit military action. The author knows his stuff.

Unlike Superman, our heroes are not immortal, but like the Man of Steel, they seem invincible, until faced with someone like themselves.

The novel ends satisfyingly, yet leaves open the possibility of sequels.

Liberals will not like this novel. Conservatives and apolitical action-fans will relish it, as I did.