Richard Marcinko is unique in that, after he wrote his bestselling autobiography Rouge Warrior he turned to action/adventure fiction written in a pseudo-autobiographical style with him as the lead character!  How come?  Well, the reason given in the back cover blurb of novels like the one being reviewed claims:

“Richard Marcinko’s revelations in his explosive #1 bestselling autobiography, Rouge Warrior, reverberated through the highest levels of the U.S. Government.  But, bound by government restrictions, he was forbidden to tell the whole story.  The answer was fiction.”

I wonder just what is “fact” and what is “fiction” in this yarn which begins with Marcinko leading his “Green Team” of special ops experts on a mission in Cairo to snatch an Islamic terrorist who was arrested in the United States for a series of deadly attacks … and got out of jail free.

Marcinko describes the escape in a way which also memorably savages the U.S. legal system.

 “Usually in these cases the accused is defended by either a William Kunstlerlike rad-chic, or a public defender.  Not so in Azziz’s case. The thirty-five year old Egyptian national who had no visible means of support was somehow suddenly represented in court by one of New York’s most prestigious Wall Street firms, whose $1,000-an-hour attorneys used the old-boy network to select the most liberal federal judge currently serving on the bench to preside at the arraignment.

After half an hour of “May we approach the bench, Your Honor” legalese double-talk and triple syllables, Let-‘em Loose Bruce allowed young Mahmoud to take a walk on $5-million bail, which the lawyer produced immediately-in cash.  And, of course, not three hours after the Most Happy Fellah sauntered out of the Federal Detention Center in lower Manhattan, he’d forfeited the money by climbing on a plane to his hometown, Cairo, using a false passport that he’d somehow (?!?) obtained.”

“Let-em Loose Bruce”?  “…legalese double-talk and triple syllables”?  Man I love that kind of bluntness! 

From the Cairo op on to a confrontation at a fancy old home in Merry Old London Marcinko weaves a complex tale of foiling international terrorism with expletives undeleted spicing the text often with his blunt opinions about the military and politics, with expletives really undeleted.

Sadly, none of the current crop of Rouge Warrior novels (in my opinion) matches the magic of the first ones penned in the 1990’s like Green Team.  

You can’t go wrong with the 1990’s batch, though. 

Oh yes, what sort of justice does the Rouge Warrior like to dish out?  Here is a taste from when he kills a “tango” (as he likes to call terrorists):

“I put one more in his head to make sure he wouldn’t get up.  Like Admiral J.P. Jones, I hadn’t begun to fight yet, either.”