THE PROJECT

       Nick Carter and Selena Connor are agents of the Project.
       The Project is "... the President's brainchild, a counterweight to the big intelligence agencies. Project is an acronym. Presidential Official Joint Exercise for Counter Terrorism. The joint part doesn't work too well, though, except for NSA. Harker's job is to cut through the smoke and mirrors tossed out by the big agencies and tell the President what's really going on. She's not afraid to speak her mind and she's a brilliant analyst. The three letter agencies don't like her. She answers only to the President..."
       The Elizabeth Harker mentioned is the head of the small but well-funded group, described as "...small, with milk-white skin, small, pointed ears and raven black hair. Her eyes were like a cat's, wide and green. She looked like an elf dressed in black and white, but a kind of elf you wouldn't want to mess with." As indicated she was picked to tell it like it was to the President and she is very good at that. Helping run the show is Stephanie Willits, Harker's deputy and a genius with computers.
       Nick Carter is the lead agent with the Project, a man hand-picked by Harker and pulled from the Marine's Force Recon detachment where he had served for a good number of years in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was tall, athletic, and might be considered ruggedly handsome by some though not all of the women he met. None of the women would have denied he had a magnetism to him. Carter, for all his dependability and his resourcefulness, suffers from two problems that keep his night's sleep from being restful. The first was a horrific event in Afghanistan in which a young boy not yet a teen was sent to kill his platoon with a grenade and Carter knew the only way to stop him was with a bullet. The other was the loss of his first love and fiancée, Megan, in a plane crash, taking from his the one solace he had found for his nightmares.
       Selena Connor is a highly intelligent and gifted woman, earning PhDs in oriental and ancient languages and considered one of the top experts in the country in her field.
She is described as "all contained, taut energy, with the rippling grace of an athlete. She was in her thirties. Her hair was short and reddish blond. Her face was tan from the outdoors. She had high cheekbones and violet eyes. There was a small mole above her lip." When she first learns of the Project she is on the periphery of a case the organization was investigating but she quickly became an active part in the matter (through no desire on her part) and she quickly showed that her skills in driving, hand-to-hand combat, and thinking on her feet were exceptional. She learned when the op was over that her quiet life in academia would never be enough and when the offer to join the group came, she took it.
       Two other agents complete the list of field operative the Project has to call upon. Lamont Cameron is an African-American former SEAL. Ronnie Peete is a Navaho who was with Carter in Force Recon.

       This is a series that I pondered whether it belonged in the collection or not for a year or so before I finally did something silly like read the first book and saw that it most definitely did belong. Not only that, I really, really enjoyed it. I liked both Carter and Connor. I liked their boss, Harker, which is not something authors usually seem to want but this author did and was successful at. I started to write up the series after the first book but then got sidetracked by the second book. And then the third. Eventually I got the series added and here we are.
       The style is easy and fast but there is not any "huh?" moments where you wonder how you got here from there. The author is a skilled writer who seems to know what he wants to say and says it succinctly. The bad guys are bad enough to want to watch them whupped. The plots are just out there enough to make your eyebrows rise a bit and then settle down for an enjoyable trip.
       There are a good number of adventures in this series so far and I hope the author keeps them coming.

My Grade: A-

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