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Summary: Sean Dummond is back and better than ever!
Review: Brian Haig has written a compulsively readable novel in Private Sector and one that, if there is any justice, should be headed straight to the top of all the bestseller lists. Haig has taken his protagonist, the cynical and salty JAG officer Sean Drummond, into the civilian world as the Army loans him out to a high profile white shoe law firm in the nation's Capital. Before you can say "fish out of water" Haig has Drummond up to his collar tabs in a plot of corporate greed and duplicity worthy of Grisham around the time he wrote The Firm. Haig's plot is imaginative without ever straining credulity and the characters cast in the roles of villain are never cartoonish. The author wisely keeps most of the real villains of the piece (with two notable exceptions) off stage most of the time and has their lawyers function as their surrogates. Major Sean Drummond is his usual tart-tongued self, in contrast to all the self-important white shoe law firm types, and is welcome contrast to nearly every character around him. His descriptions of the Machiavellian machinations of lawyers and corporate honchos to keep a corporate ship afloat ring all too true in the world after Enron, Worldcom,and Global Crossing. Sean Drummond's bluntness and sense of fairness are a welcome change from the glut of morally compromised lawyers who seem to populate much of modern fiction. With Private Sector, Brian Haig has hit a home run.
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Summary: Another winner
Review: Brian Haig is one of the best suspense/mystery writers on today's market. This his fourth Sean Drummond story, shows that he hasn't succumbed to formulaic drivel like so many others. Drummond remains smart, passionate and entertaining as he figures out the bad guys.
I do wonder why the police never commented on the condition of Lisa's tire and what it meant though.
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Summary: The Best Sean Drummond Yet
Review: Brian Haig keeps getting better and better with his military legal/murder thillers featuring maveric attorney Major Sean Drummond. Clearly this is his best book yet. The villians are vile and the pace is as good as is gets in the genre of an action thriller.
Having said that, Brian Haig should probably get a new picture for his dust jacket, since another reviewer thinks him to be GEN Alexander Haig's brother rather than Alexander Haig's son.
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Summary: A Serial Killer and Crooked Corporate Dealings
Review: Corporate lawyers and JAG officers are, by nature, opponents and Major Sean Drummond, JAG officer extraordinaire, has no desire to get sucked into that pit. But he's about to anyway. When told he's to become part of the "Working With Industry Program" which places him in the midst of a private sector firm, he's determined to make the most of his notorious reputation - and get kicked out.His resolve wavers, however, when the military officer previously assigned to the same office is murdered and others follow. Now, Drummond is on the path of a serial killer and may end up the next target. With "partners" Janet Morrow and David Spinelli, he uses tactics not employed by law enforcers to get the information he needs. At the same time, there is suspicious activity going on at the firm that keeps landing at his door. Drummond has an aversion to people assuming he's incompetent enough to become a fall guy, so he's on a mission to put a stop to that also. He may have become embroiled with more than he can handle this time. There are agencies involved he never would have dreamed of, and - for their own purposes - they may be far too willing to look the other way when it comes to punishing the truly guilty parties. As a man who has dedicated his life and loyalty to the government, what can he do but let them? Brian Haig's fourth novel is undoubtedly his best to date. It once again features the roguish and proudly antagonistic Sean Drummond who is rapidly growing into one of the genre's favorite legal eagles.
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Summary: Nelson DeMille Jr.?
Review: For 10 years I have anxiously awaited the release of each DeMille novel. With the arrival of each book, I would invariably finish it in 2 days and then lament having to wait another 9 months or so for the next offering. A few years ago, I saw a poster on a DC subway for a book called Secret Sanction by Brian Haig. I wouldn't have thought twice about the poster if it wasn't for a positive testimonial from Nelson DeMille that was printed on the poster. DeMille's rubber stamp was good enough for me. I immediately went out and bought Secret Sanction and was enthralled. I have since read Haig's other novels, including the recently published Private Sector, and each book was better than the prior one. Haig and DeMille are now interchangeable for me and my only negative with each of them is that I read their books too damn fast!! Sean Drummond is a phenomenal main character. His combination of intelligence, strength and wit combined with his self-recognized flaws make him intriguing, likable and, most of all, human. I hope that Haig sticks with Drummond in all future novels. Additionally, I hope that Haig continues to churn these stories out as quickly as possible. Private Sector took less than a day for me to read and it was gripping from the first page to the last. I already need another fix!! Nelson, it's now your turn!!
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Summary: An entertaining good time.
Review: Hot headed Army attorney Sean Drummond has been given a new job at a Washington law firm, and he's not happy about it, but he figures it can't be that bad for the short time he'll be there...he's wrong. Sean is given the tour of his new firm, as well as being brought up to speed on the perks of his new job; new wardrobe courtesy of Brooks Brothers, expense account and brand new Jaguar. As Sean is settling into his new job, he receives his first client, a media giant vying for a contract with the Pentagon, and the news of his good friend Lisa Morrow's murder. Not knowing who to trust, Sean teams with Lisa's sister Janet, a smart Boston Assistant District Attorney to investigate the murder and bring a killer to justice, but in the process he discovers his new client is not what they say they are, and the company's owner has a dark, sinister side. Sean has never backed down from trouble before, and this time is no different as he makes sure nothing gets in the way of him avenging his friends murder. 'Private Sector' is the best novel yet in the Sean Drummond series. With each new novel readers see the plots getting beefier, and the suspense thicker, proving there is long life ahead of this gripping series. Political intrigue, and complex plot twists combined with sharp legal thrills sets this thriller apart from others in the genre. Brian Haig has quickly become one of my favorite authors; from his original plots, and smooth writing, to the relentless pacing, and fast action he keeps the pages turning, and the reader guessing. The season of hot reads has begun, and 'Private Sector' is a sure bet for an entertaining good time. Expect to see this novel on the bestseller lists, and fans anxiously awaiting the next appearance of Sean Drummond. If you have not read any novels by Brian Haig do yourself a favor and read him. Nick Gonnella
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Summary: it gets better and better
Review: i can't wait for the next installment of major sean drummond....this is a real page-turner..a must read...all the other reviews are right on the spot...
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Summary: One of the best.
Review: I have high praise for Brian Haig's "Private Sector" and his character, Sean Drummond. I am reminded of two books, John Grisham's "The King of Torts" and Nelson DeMille's "The Lion's Game." The former 'King of Torts' comes to mind because of the seduction of money. Here, albeit unlikely, Drummond is the antithesis of what the staid Washington corporate lawfirm he joins represents, when he is given a chance to participate in a 'lend lease' program initiated by the Armed Forces. Drummond is a rough and tumble JAG attorney and stumbles around the lawfirm insulting venerated partners, offending women with copies of the latest EEOC decisions clutched to their chests, and generally if not being a pain in their behinds, at least a thorn in their sides. But one thing Major Drummond doesn't fool around with is his loyalty to his friends. So when his associate in JAG Lisa Morrow is murdered in a botched parking lot robbery at the Pentagon, Drummond begins to link apparently unrelated clues. And, unlike Clay Carter in 'Torts,' he is shamelessly uninterested in money. As he digs deeper he is offered millions to "join" the firm however he remains undeterred and steadfast in his goal, finding Lisa's killer wherever it leads him. Drummond hooks up with Warrent Officer Daniel Spinelli, sort of a Dennis Franz character not unlike Detective Supawitz in NYPD Blue. Drummond reminds me of John Corey in 'The Lion's Game' because he is one of the funniest private eyes (so to speak) since Corey was created by DeMille. I have to admit I laughed out loud on more than a few occasions. A very good read and highly recommended. Five stars. Larry Scantlebury
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Summary: Love wisecracks
Review: I just love wise-cracking protagonists; they have a skill I've never been able to develop. Sean Drummond is the JAG attorney creation of Brian Haig, son of Alexander (you know, of "Don't worry, Alex is here. I'm in charge, so nothing to worry about" fame), but I won't hold that against him.
Major Drummond has been asked to spend a year working for a private law firm - Culper, Hutch, and Westin - that represent some of the District of Columbia's most respectable institutions, as an experiment in army/private sector cooperation. The fact that he is unpopular with his army superiors for his sharp tongue and insubordination might also have had something to do with it. Drummond begins irritating his stuffed shirt bosses from the moment he arrives. He figures if he makes himself sufficiently unpopular, he can get himself kicked out of the program, where he follows in the footsteps at the law firm of Lisa Morrow, another JAG officer and Sean's erstwhile old flame.
Lisa had been killed in the Pentagon parking lot just before a dinner date that Sean hopes might rekindle some of the former embers. Her death is followed by three others, all the ostensible work of a serial killer whose modus operandi appears very similar to that of the LA Killer of several years before, i.e., the victims' necks had all been snapped. There was no apparent connection between the victims.
Sean, in the meantime has become embroiled in an audit of Morris Telecommunications, a company that has retained his law firm. Sean discovers some unusual financial arrangements, but he has no reason to suspect anything particularly nefarious until his brother, a financial wizard with spreadsheets, points out that several "swaps" on Morris's books put Sean's firm in some financial jeopardy. (Swaps are what sank Enron. Basically, two entities get together to show revenue on their books for the largely insubstantial use of each other's services. It's a way of propping up income statements to keep stock prices up, all legal according to generally accepted accounting principles, but another reason to shoot the accountants before going after the lawyers. :)) ) Drummond also begins to realize that the firm's attorneys might be capitalizing on his inexperience with corporate law to set him up as a fall guy. They to reckon without his long experience as a criminal attorney for the army.
In the meantime, Janet Morrow, Lisa's sister and assistant district attorney in Boston, has decided to follow the investigation into her sister's death from close up. She and Sean discover that Lisa's emails had been hidden and quarantined in the firm's network behind a secure firewall. Sean is accused of malfeasance by the firm, but by some not-so-subtle pressure on the privates of his boss (in a very funny scene), Sean extorts the help of the firm's computer expert to examine Lisa's emails. It's there that he discovers a link between the victims. Lisa had known all of them.
Soon Drummond is snared in a mesh of conflicting loyalties, as he discovers that some governmental agencies are involved in some very secret business. A fun read. Drummond is a great character who ranks with Nelson DeMille's wiseacre CID investigator.
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Summary: (4.5) Another Action Thriller by an Underappreciated Author
Review: I was hooked on Brian Haig's central character JAG lawyer Sean Drummond when I read THE KINGMAKER (five star review of 5/13/03); thus, I resolved to read the earlier books in the series to watch both the character development and changes in the author's technique and style. I subsequently finished SECRET SANCTION (3.5 star review of 7/30/03) and found it enjoyable but not nearly in the same class as THE KINGMAKER. Before I could get to MORTAL ALLIES (#2 in the series), PRIVATE SECTOR was published and I decided to read it before starting the earlier book. I highly recommend both the author and this book, although for reasons summarized at the end of this review (some of which may be entirely personal) I did not find it as completely enjoyable as THE KINGMAKER. But it is a fast moving, excellently plotted, well crafted story and continues the character development of Sean Drummond, who has the potential to be one of the enduring protagonists of this genre. When Major Drummond is notified by his boss, General Clapper, that he is being assigned to the PRIVATE SECTOR law firm Cupler, Hutch, and Westin under a "loan out" program whose supposed goal is to broaden the experience of the JAG staff while creating goodwill in the public sector, he immediately begins to plot the best method to sabotage the assignment without creating such enmity between himself and Clapper that he effectively terminates his Army career. He realizes that the combination of his natural personality traits should easily be able to be honed to accomplish the task, and immediately begins to alienate those with whom he comes into contact. The one interesting element of the assignment is that Sean is replacing fellow officer Lisa Morrow, whom he has come to know and respect during previous assignments and for whom he harbors a great deal of apparently unrequited affection. When Lisa indicates a desire to meet Sean, he is both curious about what aspects of her experience at Cupler he needs to be briefed and hopeful that she may be more attracted to him than he expected. Unfortunately, their meeting never occurs due to Lisa's apparently random murder in a DC parking lot (this minor spoiler is included because it is revealed on the book jacket) and Sean immediately decides he should supplement the efforts of the DC police and the CID ( the Army's Criminal Investigation Division) in investigating Lisa's death. Since he quickly comes to believe that Lisa's death may be related to Lisa's work at Cupler, he realizes that in order to effectively further his goal of catching Lisa's killer he has remain in the good graces of both the partners of Cupler and General Clapper, not at all an easy task for Sean. As the cliché goes, the plot quickly thickens as further increasingly brutal and apparently random murders occur. Meanwhile Sean is involved in helping the firm's largest client, Morris Networks, a telecommunications firm spawned during the financial market and technological excesses of the nineties successfully win a major government contract. He soon suspects that Lisa's death and the other murders might somehow be related to Cupler 's representation of Moriss and it's "new economy" CEO Jason Morris. As the story unfolds, there are as usual in Haig's novels many excellent lines from Sean, a well thought out although convoluted plot, and a knowledgeable and quite informative discussion of the latest uses of sophisticated financial instruments and their accounting implications (a la Enron, which is mistakenly referred to as Exxon). This is an enjoyable and well told story; although I had the advantage of understanding the business aspects of the plot the details are not essential to the story. (I also had the disadvantage of knowing enough to be aggravated at his admittedly minor mistakes.) The author did excellent research and his information is essentially correct with regard to both the details and the overview. However, I was disappointed by the anti-corporate tone of the book, there are basically no honorable people either at Morris or Cupler. In addition, Sean's idiosyncratic characteristics actually were a little overdone at times during the early part of the story and stretched cleverness to the edge of inaneness, which bordered on losing credibility. My only major criticism is the technique of writing this story with Sean as the first party narrator but interspersing segments where the killer became the narrator. (There was no confusion when this occurred, it was identified with a change in typeface. I just found it a little disconcerting although I understand the author's reasons for utilizing the technique.) So, I highly recommend this book as a good legal/action mystery by a talented author. You will benefit from reading the earlier books in the series prior to this, but that is not at all necessary. But if you only have time for one Brian Haig book, I recommend THE KINGMAKER instead as a superior read. (It is now in paperback.) Tucker Andersen
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