The Circle of Sodom: A Gripping New Thriller

Rating:
Summary: Number One Thriller!
Review: Circle of Sodom takes you on a roller coaster ride. Hang on! Or you won't get to the end in one piece. It begins with one of the most intriguing openings I've ever read. Then it takes you from today's headlines, into the shadows behind them. It is a story of the forces that shape our world in the financial, political, and religious spheres, and of the leaders in these areas who battle for our allegiance. And in the end, I suppose, it boils down to the essential-good versus evil. What a tale! I couldn't put it down.

Rating:
Summary: A Fun Read
Review: I will start this review with a disclaimer. I had not heard of this author until I was contacted by him and asked if I would be interested in reading his book. Novels concerning political intrigue are an interest of mine. No promises were made concerning how I might review this book and none were requested.

As a story with fast moving action and plenty of interesting twists and turns, this is fun to read. I was a bit put off by the time period in which the book was cast which was mostly in 1999 and 2000. The President of the United States during the time period was Bill Clinton and quite frankly, I had difficulty in ascribing any of the actions of this unnamed president in the book to the 42nd President of the United States.

The story could just as easily have been moved to a time when we do not know who the president will be. Passing by that, I thought that the "hero" of the book had a lot of James Bond in him for someone who was an ex-medical intern while serving in the Korean conflict and who has become over the passage of time a multi millionaire business consultant.

The story line of the book is that some right wing zealots are plotting to take over the Presidency of the United States in such a way that the people are not aware that a coup has actually taken place. There is a mastermind to all of this who weaves in and out of the plot like a Svengali who will undoubtedly reappear in a future novel as will Owen MacDara, the James Bondian business consultant.

I also agree that this could make a very good movie and I actually think that the plot and story line may be better suited to the screen.

Rating:
Summary: Adequate Political Thriller
Review: In 1975, in a MASH unit in Korea, a medical procedure is performed in secret. 24 years later, the men who were privy to this secret begin dying. The premise of this book sounded intriguing, so I accepted a copy of the book from the publisher with the promise to review it. This was an adequately written story. The pace was a little inconsistent at times. I never did warm to the main character, Owen MacDara, but I'm not sure why. There was some fairly graphic sex scenes included which didn't seem necessary to the plot. This wasn't one of my favorites, but if you like complex political thrillers, you will probably like this one.

Rating:
Summary: terse political thriller
Review: In 1975, MASH unit Commanding Officer Major Whiteside directs medic Owen MacDara and a few others on an unusual operation in which they remove some odd looking rubbery cartilage-like objects from the rectum of a colonel. Upon removal, the colonel dresses and leaves without a word. Whiteside informed his men that silence and confidentiality are critical.

Almost twenty-five years later, Owen is a millionaire running Global Management Associates that he formed with two colleagues. GMA is the international leading consultant firm on the global financial marketplace. However, that bizarre surgery in Korea comes back to haunt Owen. Someone is killing those who witnessed the removal of the weird items from the officer, who is now a highly regarded Four-Star General. The treachery goes high and even the president is in jeopardy. Owen combines his military and civilian skills to try to stay alive, keep his girlfriend (the murdered Whiteside's daughter) safe, and unravel a conspiracy that is the greatest threat to the American governmental tradition since the Civil War.

THE CIRCLE OF SODOM is a terse political thriller that never lets up until the final confrontation occurs. The story line is fast-paced and loaded with action, but also enables the audience to understand the motives of each of the key players as Pat Mullan constantly switches third person perspective so the reader receives a complete picture of an incident. It is this difficult to deliver the technique of the changing point of view that can easily lead to spectator confusion, but Mr. Mullan displays his skills as fans will easily follow along this one sitting thriller.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Exciting and timely
Review: It seemed like one of those random murders--a friend of Owen MacDara killed while he visited a strip club. But Owen's suspicions are raised when another friend vanishes. The connection, they, along with Owen, were on duty during a strange late-night operation in a military hospital in Korea. It doesn't seem possible that someone would be killing the witnesses now, but no other explanation seems possible either. As Owen begins to investigate, he finds clues of a huge right-wing conspiracy to overthrow the government and put their own man in office.

With the help of a General and the President's authorization, Owen pursues the clues--and puts himself in danger. The conservatives have moles everywhere and it doesn't take them long to discover that Owen is after them, or to do their best to turn the tables. Worse, if the President goes public with the plot, he'll be accused of being paranoid--insane. The right would get their coup without even having to fight.

Author Pat Mullan writes an exciting and fast-moving tale. From almost the first page, Owen finds himself in danger and confronting men who believe that God has called on them to bring about the end times. The use of computer warfare and cyberterrorism to undermine the economy, discussions of antiterrorism tactics, and the modern militia movement all are well researched and seamlessly incorporated into the adventure.

For my tastes, Mullan relies a bit much on coincidence and stupidity on the part of the enemy (the botched kidnapping of Kate, in particular, seems incredibly poorly handled). But Mullan's strong story-telling overcomes the few narrative flaws and occasionally awkward language to provide a completely enjoyable reading experience. With today's increasing split between the right and left in America, THE CIRCLE OF SODOM is a timely read.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent read!
Review: Pat Mullen was born in Ireland, but has lived in the United States for many years. Six years ago he retired from his "day"job in finance and returned to live in Connemara, Ireland. There he published his first work, CHILDHOOD HILLS, a collection of poems and essays. Thriller novels have always been his favorite genre, so he wrote THE CIRCLE OF SODOM.. His style is unusual in that he writes longhand and types his writing into his computer. BLOOD RED SQUARE, his next thriller, is in the works.

In this political thriller, Owen MacDara is a self-made millionaire with a high-powered consulting company. But there is something in his past life as a medical intern who served in Korea which is killing his old friends he served with in that conflict. A secret from the past involves a bizarre medical procedure performed on a high-ranking general threatens those who have a vested interest in his squeaky-clean record. These individuals' plot would murder MacDara and all witnesses to the procedure, kidnap and murder his new-found love, and unseat a president. It is up to MacDara to make sense of the series of murders and stop the conspiracy. Little does he know that his newfound love is right in the middle of the maelstrom:

"'My father was murdered, wasn't he?'
'Yes, I believe he was. We have no body and no proof, but he had stumbled into something evil when he was researching his memoirs. The attach on your mother proves that. They were trying to find out what he knew.'
'They? Who are THEY, Owen? Is General Walker one of them?'
'I don't know who THEY are and I don't know WHAT they are...'"

With rapid-fire pacing and well-drawn characters, Mr. Mullan takes the reader on a magic carpet ride all over the United States, England, Belgium, Switzerland and Hong Kong to weave a tale most evil and scary. The plot involves the very presidency, and the group plotting against our democracy is made up of very determined right-winged fanatics. Pat Mullen is a mature and knowledgeable writer who puts together a thriller with the best of them. The Circle of Sodom is an outstanding first effort from an author who can continue to capture his audience as long as he cares to try. An excellent read!

Shelley Glodowski
Reviewer

Rating:
Summary: "an exciting novel, tight and tense, with a stunning climax"
Review: This is the first novel by Pat Mullan, who is the author of a previously published a book of poems (CHILDHOOD HILLS). It follows the form of a classic action thriller with a political backdrop, and the author successfully engages the reader right from the opening paragraph. The prologue is a mysterious surgery performed on an unknown Army Colonel in a Mash unit in Korea in 1975 that was witnessed by Owen MacDara, who was then sworn to secrecy regarding all details of the event.

The story is then resumed twenty four years later; MacDara is the head of the firm which he co-founded in 1984, Global Management Associates, an incredibly successful financial advisory firm. MacDara still meets monthly at his favorite bar in NYC with three of his Army buddies, but on this day tragedy will strike as one of them is killed in an apparently random killing in the topless bar which the dead man owned. While MacDara is still sitting at Costelloes (their meeting place) in shock, a picture appears on the TV screen that reminds him of that long ago night in Korea and makes him wonder if his friend's killing was not the random event that it seemed but in some way connected to the current political situation in our nation's capitol. As Owen attempts to unravel the truth concerning his friend's murder, he becomes involved with operatives at the highest levels of government. Further murders occur, and both his life and the government itself appear to be increasingly threatened as the story races ahead. The almost obligatory romantic thread is also interwoven into the story, but not in an entirely credible manner. (The way the romantic angle is handled is one of my mild criticisms, as it is used as a device by the author to increase the suspense and introduce some elements of the plot but is somewhat unconvincing under the circumstances in which MacDara finds himself.)

Overall, this was a fast paced story with the elements of a good plot and an interesting hero in Owen MacDara (who is undoubtedly destined for greater exploits in the next book by the author). And I really liked the technique the author utilized of indicating the time and date of each segment of the story, which both kept the reader informed and also added to the sense of urgency as the pace quickened. Furthermore, the use of multiple narrators both to tell the story and also to provide historical background was handled much more adroitly than similar attempts by other authors with whom I am familiar.

So, why not a five star rating like many other reviewers? Least importantly, while the editing was much superior to most books from second tier publishers, there were some typos but more annoyingly some minor errors that should have been caught.
(E.g. the description of the stock market panic during one scene included the phrase that "The Dow Jones has hit an all time low" which was a gratuitous exaggeration that only serves to annoy a reader familiar with financial markets.) More importantly, this sense of unnecessary exaggeration and unreality pervades several critical segments of the story. I have already mentioned the nature of the romantic involvement between MacDara and a key character, but more disconcerting is the way in which the MacDara repeatedly esxapes danger in a manner reminiscent more of Superman than a real life individual, even one of his extraordinary ability. Finally, in an attempt to further the plot and explain the motivation of the conspirators confronted by MacDara, many of the characters seem more like caricatures than real life individuals. Thus, paradoxically since my complaint concerning most novels of this genre is that the authors are too verbose (especially Clancy), this book needed to be somewhat longer in order for the plot to proceed in a more believable fashion and for many of the characters to be more fully developed.

In summary, while I recommend this novel, my criticisms are the reason that I did not give it a higher rating. I agree with several reviewers who have suggested that it would make an excellent movie, since the storyline is exciting and may of the details which bothered me would be inconsequential or even nonexistent given the inevitable limitations concerning such details in any film version. Finally, I suspect a speed reader or others who read only for plot would probably not be bothered by the factors that I mentioned and might well find this to be a five star read.

Disclaimer: In the interest of full disclosure, I was furnished a review copy of this book by the author based upon my interest in this genre as evidenced by my previous reviews of similar books. As is the case with many authors published by second tier presses with small promotional budgets, he is hopeful that a wider base of reviewers might stimulate additional interest in his book. I have no relationship and have never met either the author or anyone employed by the publisher, and furnished no guarantee that I would even submit a review. If anything, in order to prove my objectivity I perhaps presented my criticisms in more detail than they deserve. Nevertheless, people in my business have belatedly learned too much disclosure is preferable to not enough, so this addendum is offered in that spirit.

Tucker Andersen

Rating:
Summary: Number One Thriller!
Review: Well, this was a rollicking ride. Read Circle of Sodom, and you'll get to follow Owen MacDara on his odyssey from New York to the Atlantic Ocean, from Palm Springs to the backwoods hills of Tennessee, all in the name of love and daring-do. There's a lot of action packed in these 300+ pages, action dealing with terrorism, spying, attempted coups, and religious fanaticism.
Good, tight writing, clean prose that just zips along, and characters that are engaging and memorable all contribute to a great new book in the thriller genre. It's not my usual choice of reading material, but the book was a gift. I read it and am glad I did.

Rating:
Summary: "It's pacey and exciting and filmic in its descriptions..."
Review: You know you're reading a good thriller when you start to cast it for the movie before you've even finished. The plot is as complex as a Grisham novel, with twists and turns that kept me reading all night. It deals with corruption in high places and sinister secret societies and collusion between those who want more power.

The characters are exceptionally well drawn and the dialogue fairly whips along. With the action moving from the elegant rooms of the White House to shootings in New York bars, car chases and mysterious cult rituals, the story catapaults the reader around the United States with confidence. As the plot thickens - as they say! - paranoia battles with genuine anxiety about the U.S. government under threat from those who have a blackmailing agenda.

All the ingredients for a good thriller are here. Owen MacDara is an ex-medical intern who served in Korea, now a millionaire business consultant. His previous history in the army leads him to take up a personal vendetta for the deaths - or are they murders? - of several of his former army buddies. His soulmate is the beautiful daughter of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff upon whom MacDara had operated, in strictest confidentiality, in Korea. The subplots interweave as the protagonists' lives become affected by seemingly unrelated killings. Only MacDara begins to sense a more wide-ranging conspiracy.

The details about the internal workings of the U.S. President's office and the machinations of those 'who would be king' are neatly plotted, with enough kidnappings, torture and sex to satisfy any connoisseur of the thriller genre.

It's pacey and exciting and filmic in its descriptions, and is an impressive first novel. Definitely a gripping read for those long winter evenings...

Eithne Hannigan, BOOK REVIEWS, CONNEMARA LIFE magazine, Autumn 2002
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ABOUT EITHNE HANNIGAN

Eithne Hannigan holds an M.A. (hons.) in English and Law from King's College, Cambridge. She worked as an actor, musician and writer with Liverpool Everyman, Liverpool Playhouse, National Theatre and Donmar Warehouse in London. She then joined the BBC to present Playschool and, from 1987 to 1990, she presented her own show, Dot. Today she tours Ireland with her own band, Some Like It Hot. She has played at all the prestigious Jazz and Blues festivals both in Ireland and Britain, including Edinburgh and Glastonbury. Television appearances include The Late Late Show and Nighthawks.