BOB STILL

Bob Still is an agent with the FBI.

He is not a spy. He might joke about being made one when his career in the Bureau takes an interesting turn but he knows he is not cut out for being a spy and has no desire to be so. He is an agent and a very good one with an impressive number of years under his belt and a good number of collars to his credit.

At 55 years of age when the first of the two-book series takes place, Still is in a good place. He has been a partner with an irrasible red-headed Irish-American namded Hollaran for quite a few years and can see the retirement line up ahead. His partner, one year older, has been talking about it for a while and Still knows it is going to happen though he is not ready for it yet. He is pretty happy with life and has not interest in its changing.

But it will change for the tall, muscular black man, a very dark complexed figure with a head shaven clean since he served on the ground in the jungles of Vietnam so many years before. One day he and Halloran showed up for work at the office as normal and then the invitation to their boss's office came. He knew it was going to be out of the ordinary when his boss called him 'Bob' and not just his last name.

A special task force of people from different branches of the government was being created and the Bureau was asked to provide two members. The task force was to investigate the chilling rumor that various terrorist organizations who were ofter as much at odds with each other as with their sworn targets might be putting aside their differences to stage one big attack against the U.s.

Though his partner was less than thrilled with the job which would take them away from their comfort zone and into a world they had no experience with, Still found himself oddly excited. And when the mission finally came to an exciting, almost life-ending conclusion and his partner decided his plans for retirement had come due, Still hugged his old friend and gladly accepted yet another assignment.

The two books about Bob Still, the first partnered with a man named Hollaran and the second with a guy called Mackey, are an interesting pair of books for this spy series collection. Bob Still is the recurring character in both books and plays a major role in each but he is by no means the only person of action and his parts are equaled by others, making it more of an ensemble piece than a single-character series.

But Still gets the billing because he is a) the main recurring character and b) a very interesting man.

The two tales are fairly standard fare but they are a lot of fun and I would not mind at all if the author decided to bring back any of the people, especially Still. Some more of the backstory on the character would be nice although since I do not think the author meant for Still to be the sole or even main protagonist, I understand why we got only what we got. Nevertheless, I liked Still and would like to know more.