Cuba (Jake Grafton #7) (audiobook) by Stephen Coonts



Good thriller plot overcomes other issues

 Originally published in 1999.
Read by Benjamin L. Darcie
Duration: 14 hours, 44 minutes
Unabridged

Just so you'll know, I am reviewing Cuba as an audiobook - I listened to it as an audiobook and as an audiobook it was pretty good, meaning that I never really wondered if there was something else on the radio that was better.
As to the plot - I found it to be especially interesting to have the book focus on the presence of Weapons of Mass Destruction in Cuba, considering our situations in Iran and North Korea and the famed search for WMD in Iraq. The descriptions of the power of these weapons and the reasons that tin-pot dictators and superpowers possess them was informative.

 As always, Coonts writes wonderful action sequences. His characters are sometimes a bit stiff, especially with his American cabinet officials.

 Quibbles I have with the book:

 -Sometimes there's so much tech-speak that it bogs the story down. At times, Coonts seems more interested in showing us cool gadgets than moving the story along.

 -Why is Rear Admiral Jake Grafton personally leading the invasion of a Cuban prison and checking out abandoned freighters with Toad Tarkington? Why is Toad Tarkington leading military mission after military mission? These men are in their 50s! Are their no Junior officers in his entire carrier group? Very Captain Kirk-ish. It seems to me that this would have been an excellent time to have passed the baton generationally and introduced the readers to a couple of new, young, enthusiastic officers who could do some of these rough and tumble adventures.

Reviewed on September 10, 2004.

 I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: Cuba (Jake Grafton #7).

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