Hazardous Duty

Presidential Agent Series, Book 8

By: W.E.B. Griffin, William E. Butterworth IV

Narrated by: Dick Hill

Length: 13 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

The Presidential Agent adventures return, in the most surprising novel yet in the #1 Wall Street Journal – and New York Times–bestselling series.

Mexican drug cartels are shooting up the streets of Laredo and El Paso. Somali pirates are holding three U.S. tankers for ransom. The President of the United States is fed up and, as Commander in Chief, has what he thinks is a pretty bright idea — to get hold of Colonel Charley Castillo and his merry band and get them on the case.

Unfortunately, that will be difficult. Everybody knows that the President hates Castillo’s guts, and has just had him forcibly retired from the military, and now Castillo’s men are scattered far and wide, many of them in hiding. There are also whispers that the President himself is unstable — the word “nutcake” has been mentioned.

How will it all play out? No one knows for sure, but for Castillo and company, only one thing is definite: This is going to be hazardous duty.

©2013 W.E.B. Griffin (P)2013 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved. Recorded by arrangement with G. P. Putnam’s Sons, a member of Penguin Group (USA) LLC.

Critic reviews

"Tough-fisted . . . hard-edged . . . Griffin’s formula is straightforward: Set up a bunch of obstacles, and let us watch Charley Castillo knock them down one at a time. His novels promise action, suspense, and rousing entertainment, and they never fail to deliver." ( Booklist)

Repeat and rehash

If you removed the retelling of the past books the would be short story instead of a book.

Sadly disappointed.

Would you try another book from W.E.B. Griffin and William E. Butterworth and/or Dick Hill?

Yes just not this dribble. I'm suprised Dick Hill would even narrate a book like this.

What could W.E.B. Griffin and William E. Butterworth have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Actually write a story that carried forward the series.

Poor quality nothing like the prior books

I previously love this series, but this book Falls first word of the previous books, which I loved. It ain't conversations poor plot development has caused me to return this book without finishing it.

meh.

I enjoyed the rest of the series, but this one was disappointing. I'm used to his tendency to over-explain things that happened before, not only in previous books in the series for any folks who didn't read then through, but even things from earlier in the same book, but I really took that annoyance to a new level in this one... seemed like that was practically all the book was - reiterating what happened before and talking about how they were going to fool the president into thinking they were doing what he ordered, while never satisfactorily explaining why they didn't just actually do it other than he's a little unhinged and wanted to send Castillo et al to Russia - a good reason not to go visit, and one of many good reasons to have him removed from office, but the order to observe and make recommendations on the problems of drug cartels and Somali pirates seemed reasonable enough in and of itself. Why not actually try to do something about one of those issues, rather than devote so much effort to pretending? honestly I zoned out at the end so I don't remember if/how the situation with the president was resolved, but considering there was no plot to speak of, I'm sure that wasn't particularly satisfying either. I would almost rate the story a single star except for how precient the nuttery of Clandenon is in light of the current occupant of the White House. the reader seemed to forget how to pronounce everything since the last book, so that was a constant small annoyance too.

BAD!! What has happened to this great series??

What disappointed you about Hazardous Duty?

This used to be my favorite series by far! Not anymore!

The book is just old rehashed information from older books. I've read the previous books, so tell me something new. There is no new plot, no new ideas what-so-ever.

I feel completely cheated by the last two books of this series.

Has Hazardous Duty turned you off from other books in this genre?

No story development, The last two books just review the previous books. This mean you get about 2 hours of new content.

What didn’t you like about Dick Hill’s performance?

Dick Hill is amazing. I would listen to him reading the phone book if I could.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

Nothing at all.

Any additional comments?

The authors need to stop mailing it in and actual be creative and develop some new story lines

Awful! Just absolutely awful!

I am actually having trouble believing that the mind that created the Men at War, The Corps, and the Badge of Honor series had ANYTHING to do with this complete piece of [REDACTED].

I strongly suspect that I have a streak of masochism in me after I realized I had somehow made it through this "book".

Mr. Griffin.... What happened? Seriously!

Also, I love narrator Dick Hill in the Jack Reacher series but he should have walked away from this one. Not his best work by a long shot.

Sad and Bad

What disappointed you about Hazardous Duty?

Nothing but copy and paste from old stories and the rest was a waste of my time. I could have been doing something less painful like a root canal.

Would you ever listen to anything by W.E.B. Griffin and William E. Butterworth again?

Not without a money back guarantee and a time machine.

Good to Very Bad....

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

The first 6 hrs of the book was albout telling the last 7 books, and getting it all wrong, and the last 6 hrs was about filling the pages, this was a great series and than it just went to hell, not happy at all with it......This book left me mad that i paid for it ............

Not worth your time.

Easy to review. Story was week, didn't flow and even Dick Hill couldn't make this story palatable.

Not up to standards...

What disappointed you about Hazardous Duty?

The apology at the end notwithstanding...this was by far the worst W.E.B. Griffin book I have ever read. The attempts at humor were less than childish and stupidity of the characters were a great disappointment.

What was most disappointing about W.E.B. Griffin and William E. Butterworth ’s story?

The story was not well told. The characters were not believable. It was like reading 4 or 5 related but not linked short stories.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

The narration was pure Dick Hill and he did the best he could with this choppy disconnected piece.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Hazardous Duty?

Scrap the whole thing...start over.