DRAGON FIRE [Mass Market Paperback]

A republican senator from Maine for 27 years and Secretary of Defense under Bill Clinton, Cohen puts his insider knowledge to work in a global-conspiracy thriller that spans continents and entangles governments. His bull-necked, sharp and independent hero seems modeled in part on John McCain, who gives his former colleague's debut a stellar blurb. Less august readers may not be so enthusiastic.

The story starts off promisingly, with the murders of a couple of low-level Defense Intelligence Agency analysts who discover that people are dying en masse near one of China's nuclear test sites. Then the Secretary of Defense who encouraged the analysts' digging dies in an anthrax attack.

Michael Patrick Santini, a former senator and Vietnam POW who endured lengthy torture and isolation, a man who does not suffer fools gladly, and whose temper has been known to get him into trouble, becomes the new Secretary of Defense. He already has some enemies among the ideologues and power grubbers who surround the president - a background character seen mostly reacting to the often shrill and contradictory opinions of his advisors.

Santini is hardly on the job a month when a German flying team blows up during an air show. We already know it's sabotage and it doesn't take the government long to confirm it. While a rabid local militia seems the obvious culprit, complications point to international influence.

Cohen makes frequent narrative switches, moving among statesmen and conspirators in Russia, Germany, China and the U.S. This enables us to keep track of a plot that develops some fiendishly clever complications. How about, for instance, a Russian Mafiya boss as Russia's next president? And not just any Mafiya boss, but one with a long-range view and a finger on the pulse of malcontents in governments worldwide. Not to give too much away but Cohen will make you shudder with the reminder of how easily the world could be brought to the brink of global war.

So - an intriguing, many tentacled plot involving nuclear possibilities and worldwide mayhem, with just enough plausibility and outlandishness to satisfy any conspiracy buff. What could possibly spoil it?

Too much verbiage, for one. Cohen loves the day-to-day political posturing and back and forth between people who guard their acronyms and titles as jealously as their insider knowledge. And he likes to tell us how government is supposed to work and how reality differs from the ideal. The problem is he writes with a politician's flair for language. Which is to say the writing is pretty turgid. And the plot suffers from it, especially at the beginning before Cohen has all his diabolical pieces - er, characters - in place.

Those who enjoy reading about the turf battles, political power maneuvers and back stabbing that goes on in the highest echelons of government will find a feast here; those who find it mind boggling that affairs of state are handled in this way will find plenty to get stirred up about. Those just looking for a scary, page-turning thriller to while away an evening might want to look elsewhere.

This book probably presages a whole array of spy and espionage novels, that can be expected to feature China as a feature antagonist over the coming years.

On the one hand, I would be delighted if Western audiences began to take a more serious interest in Far East subjects. So much of our global economy is today tied up with that part of the world. On the other hand, I would also hate to see this subject become over-simplified. In no way could China be mistaken for the kind of global empire that the Soviet Union once aspired to be.

The writing style is somewhat clunky in parts. I would also have liked to have seen slightly more character development. The description of the bureaucratic in-fighting and behind-the-scenes political battles of Washington, however, are all too real, as anyone who has read at any length on the subject will recognize. This is no doubt a reflection of William Cohen's personal experiences as Secretary of Defense, although I could point to at least have a dozen autobiographies by Washington insiders that describe similar experiences.

Once you get into the novel, however, the story line flows well. Everything about the plot, the characters, the principal events, has a "torn from the headlines" feel to them, making for a very believable read.

Hopefully, this book will inspire at least some of its audience to learn more about the realities of China's defense policy making, and the potential implications of China's very real military build-up. For those readers who might be interested in learning more about the reality of China's defense policy making, I would recommend "China's Use of Military Force," by Andrew Scobell (2003) as well as "Chinese Warfighting" by Mark A. Ryan, et. al. (2003). Both of these books provide a more balanced insight into China's past use of its armed forces, providing a less alarmist view of Chinese capabilities and intentions than what some, less sophistication sources might try to convey.

For those interested in a more brief review of China's ongoing defense modernization, there was an excellent article in the September 2006 (Vol 7, No 8) issue of the bimonthly magazine, "Combat Aircraft". Although the latter focuses on China's air force, the same trends can be found in China's army and navy as well.

I originally bought this book more interested in it as a window to the inside politics and intrigues at the Defense Department and Intelligence Agencies than as a spy/terrorist thriller. It turned out to be immensely satisfying on both scores. William S.Cohen's inside perspective on the workings of government are fascinating but he has also, at the same time, managed to create a very captivating and scary tale that gains incredible momentum as you read on. On top of all that, the international politics and machinations frightingly mirror what is now going on in the real world. An excellent read.