Rating: 
Summary: A Bit Uneven - But Worthwhile
Review: After ordering The Jericho Sanction, I figured I had better read this book first as it is the lead novel in a planned trilogy. I am currently reading the 2nd book and can report that it is much more smoothly written than the first, but that reading the first was helpful. Oliver North certainly knows from first hand experience the perspective that Major Peter Newman, USMC brings to his job at the National Security Council, because Newman is the first person to hold the position that North used to have since the Iran-Conta dust up. Newman is put in charge of a covert UN force who are authorised to bring to justice international lawbreakers. His immediate superior, the president's NSA as a deceitful SOB who is in league with a former Russian KGB agent and general who is now a Deputy Secretary General at the UN. He is also involved with selling nuclear weapons to Iraq, among other things, and it is the Iraq factor that leads to the deliberate sabotaging of Newman's mission to Iraq, by both of Newman's supervisors.
The timing of the novel is set during Clinton administration and if you are a fan of that group, this story will go down with some difficulty for you as there is little to be proud of in the way the US government conducts itself. The claim that Sandy Berger was stuffing classified documents into his pants in order to remove them from the National Archieves is child's play, compared to the activities of the NSA in this novel. There is, as others have noted, a heavy dose of Christian evangalisim in parts of the book. It is part of the plotline and gives the rationale for some of the actions that take place. It could have been done with a lighter hand, but I did not find it offensive or distracting. All in all, I was glad I read it as necessary homework for the books that follow. You get the names of the players and the background for the story's framework. There is a bit of the Tom Clancy urge to overdescribe some aspects of things that don't really advance the story.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Book
Review: Could make a pretty good TV movie
Rating: 
Summary: Good ending? Bad ending? Great ending? Awful ending?
Review: Fantastic book! As I approached the end of the book, however, I was EXTREMELY disappointed in the ending. That changed, however, as I figured out what the author was doing. (Hint: when you read the book, do NOT skip the epilogue; specifically, the next-to-last sentence.) North and his co-author are fantastic story-tellers.
North writes this book from a Christian perspective, which is a breath of fresh air from this type of novel. Several subplots tie themselves in together as the story winds up.
I've read several other books of war-fiction, and this was by far the best. I'm looking forward to the sequel.
Rating:
Summary: A refreshing read!
Review: I enjoyed many things about this book, the development of characters, the story line and especially the lack of profanity. I thought North got his points across very well, without 4 letter words, and this was refreshing. I did have to remind myself that it was a work of fiction; however, so much was based on real life that I had a bit of trouble sorting events out.
Rating:
Summary: Gripping
Review: I found this book to be a gripping read ... the chapters were well organized and the sub-stories all came together very nicely throughout the book starting with Mogadishu and ending with the Gulf War era ... since I also enjoy politics, I found the espionage and corruption storylines in this book to be plausible which made it all the more interesting to read ... fortunately for Oliver North, the book was co-written by a great story teller using North's real-life knowledge in counter-terrorism ... soon after finishing this book, I purchased the sequel "Jericho Sanction" which was also very good but didn't measure up to Mission Compromised. Definitely a worthwhile read, I have recommended it to all my friends.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Work of Military Suspense
Review: I just finished LtCol North's book, and found it to be both a "page turner" and a quick read for a book of some 600 pages. The basic storyline is straightforward enough; a "good guy" Marine and his ultra-secret special operations unit are misled and ultimately betrayed by their superiors, one entranced with the "New World Order," and one out for his own profit. There are plenty of twists and turns, however, and suspense builds steadily throughout the last half of the book. This is written from a conservative viewpoint, and the developing Christian faith of the protagonist and his wife, and the faith of those who help them, become fairly important to the plot development. The basic story, however, is strong enough that it should overcome any dislike these factors might engender in liberal readers. In any event, the book is generally well-written, and certainly grabs and keeps your attention as the events begin to accelerate. This is definitely a book that, once started, is hard to put down until finished.
Rating: 
Summary: Along with America's secrets . . . .who stole the editor?
Review: If you are an Amazon-o-phile you probably read books avidly, write reviews discriminatingly, carefully choose your books and your words, come to your own conclusions, and then see the "other" reviews to determine if "others" saw things either as you did or perhaps saw things you did not.Sometimes you're confused, sometime you're pleased, and then there are those times when you feel your desktop has jumped into another website. Reviewers are talking about the book, but they're not talking about the writing. Such is the case with Oliver North's prodigious effort, "Mission Compromised." So this is an interesting tale in which if you knew the history of North's relationship with the Executive and Legislative branches of the Government you would have to conclude that it was semi-autobiographical. Major Pete Newman, ergo sum, is Colonel Ollie North. Don't be confused by the conversations and meetings between Colonel North, ret. and Newman The other characters are fairly easy to understand after a few lines from North's pen . . . .errrr . . . .laptop. Fat, rude, nasty and obese people rarely turn out to be good guys. Multi billionaires who sell secret products to the bad guys are, well, bad guys themselves. There's an odd or peculiar presence of "the Christian message" in the book, which perhaps is overstated in a purportedly fictional novel. It's like sitting down with your kids to watch the NCAA playoffs, and the doorbell rings and it's two Church "witnesses." The message is good; you're just not sure why you're getting it now. It seems out of place. Now I myself liked Colonel North. I served with him (although I did not know him personally) in Vietnam as a young Marine Lieutenant. So let me distance myself from those who call him a traitor and a quisling and a turncoat. This Marine doesn't think so. But what seems to be unfortunate is that those reviews that are unsupportive of the book are fairly well outright dismissed. There's a 0 out of 7, a 1 out of 8, and I think a 1 or a 2 out of 32 on the votes "did this review help you?" They seem to take an unfortunate secret poll not on the efficacy of the book, but rather on whether or not you liked Colonel North. I chuckle at this because liking Colonel North, I seriously believe there is at least one terminal error about the novel. This book is at least 300 pages too long. I applaud those who say they got through all 600 pages in 4 or 5 days. Because I felt like a galley slave in an old Charlton Heston movie, working the oars for at least 325 pages. So I want to know WHERE WAS THE RED PEN? If Americans were asleep at the Iran Contra happenings, where was the editor that was supposed to say, "Ollie, this is a darn good story. Now go back to the hotel, drink some coffee and cut it in half." I like this book. I like this story. I like Colonel North. But this book is a long, long, long way to go to get across the street.
Rating:
Summary: Off to a great start.
Review: Oliver North (with help of co-writer Musser) is off to a great start as a novelist. I enjoyed this book more than I expected to. It has an exciting, intriguing plot & interesting characters. Yes, there are some boring spurts of techno-jargon (but not nearly as much as in some contemporary military thrillers) but I just skipped over those. It's the characters & the plot that drive this book (which is as it should be). I especially enjoyed North's rather daring move of making himself a character in his own novel. Not many authors would have the moxie to do that -- but it worked. I also liked the Christian sub-theme which I thought was very well done & seemed natural as part of the plot. So many Christian novels are too didactic & preachy. In this one, the characters' conversions seem like a natural development of their own personalities & the plot. A Christian-military novel is a narrow niche, but this novel is far far superior to another example I just read -- or, rather, tried to read -- it was so awful I gave up quickly. I refer to Mel Odom's "Apocalypse Dawn" -- a real turkey! If this is Ollie's literary revenge on his adversaries, that makes it even more of a fun read. I can't wait to read the sequel!
Rating:
Summary: Off to a great start.
Review: Oliver North (with help of co-writer Musser) is off to a great start as a novelist. I enjoyed this book more than I expected to. It has an exciting, intriguing plot & interesting characters. Yes, there are some boring spurts of techno-jargon (but not nearly as much as in some contemporary military thrillers) but I just skipped over those. It's the characters & the plot that drive this book (which is as it should be). I especially enjoyed North's rather daring move of making himself a character in his own novel. Not many authors would have the moxie to do that -- but it worked. I also liked the Christian sub-theme which I thought was very well done & seemed natural as part of the plot. So many Christian novels are too didactic & preachy. In this one, the characters' conversions seem like a natural development of their own personalities & the plot. A Christian-military novel is a narrow niche, but this novel is far far superior to another example I just read -- or, rather, tried to read -- it was so awful I gave up quickly. I refer to Mel Odom's "Apocalypse Dawn" -- a real turkey! If this is Ollie's literary revenge on his adversaries, that makes it even more of a fun read. I can't wait to read the sequel!
Rating:
Summary: Wickedly Scary...........
Review: The scary part of this novel is not being able to tell fiction from truth. My first accessment of the book was a Christian Fiction novel, based on military practices and policies and functions. Throw in Oliver North, a true hero, both writing and appearing in the novel, and your mind can really play tricks on you, telling you that some of the things you are reading are not all that "fictional". The Christianity and sound gospel doctrine in this book added a nice warmth to the story. I enjoy good novels with well-written doctrine intrinsic to the theme of the story and while this story would have been nice without it, it would not have been the same, nor would this novel be as popular, in my opinion. My vote if for this book to turn into a series, going beyond the boundaries of "trilogy" that so many writers seem to halt at these days. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I will be both reading The Jericho Sanction and recommending this book to my friends! Mr North, Thank you for the fascinating, too-close-for-comfort, tale!
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