SOFT TARGET: A THRILLER (Ray Cruz #2) (audiobook) by Stephen Hunter
Published in 2011 by Brilliance Audio. Read by Phil Gigante. Duration: 7 hours, 56 minutes. Unabridged. The premise of this book is pretty simple: The Bruce Willis movie Die Hard meets Minnesota's The Mall of America , except in this book it is called America: The Mall. It's Black Friday, the biggest shopping day in the biggest shopping mall in America. Suddenly, Islamic terrorists throw off their disguises, shoot the mall Santa between the eyes and take a thousand people hostage. Turns out that super tough retired Marine Ray Cruz is shopping in the mall and almost immediately sets out to start taking out the bad guys... So, if the book had just followed that basic story line, it would have been better. Instead, it moves away from this compelling story (the "thriller" promised in the title). Instead, we get a lot of political wrangling with an up and coming politician-type leader of the Minnesota State Patrol, his subordinates and the FBI. This character, named Ob