Hammerheads

Brown, (Day of the Cheetah, Silver Tower, and Flight of the old Dog) now lays out a way to lick the drug problem with the latest aircraft and a new drug-defense agency. Coast Guard Admiral Ian Hardcastle has taken a long, hard look at the American drug problem and found the multiplicity of agencies doing battle to be a big part of the difficulty. In addition to the DEA, there are the Coast Guard and the Customs Service all tripping over each other, while the Colombians and their allies are waltzing through with tons of cocaine. The hottest drug-shippers, a gang of alienated Cubans, are operating their own air-force base on Haiti, making the Medellin cartel richer than ever. Hardcastle comes up with a plan for a new drag-defense service nicknamed "Hammerheads" that'll be directed by himself and Sandra Geffar, a hotshot pilot for the Customs Service. Interservice rivalry and bureaucratic turf protection that threaten Hardcastle's plan fall to the will of the President, and Hardcastle equips the Hammerheads with hybrid helicopter/airplanes, offshore air bases, space age radar, and dedicated drug-warriors. The strategy of forcing every plane and ship entering the US to do so through a series of corridors and checkpoints has an immediate effect on Colombian cash flow. It also goads the Cuban smugglers into an all. out war. Whiz-bang technology and muscular, damn-the-torpedos strategy are, for the most part, acceptable substitutes for three-dimensional characters and believable dialogue. (Kirkus Reviews)