Without Mercy

A Novel

By: R. J. Pineiro, Col. David Hunt

Narrated by: PJ Ochlan

When ISIS detonates nuclear weapons in two key American strongholds, the United States plunges into chaos, and the CIA scrambles to prevent a third tragedy in Without Mercy, a terrifying and topical thriller from Colonel David Hunt and R. J. Pineiro.

The unthinkable has happened: ISIS, covertly assisted by Pakistan's intelligence services, has acquired nuclear weapons and the ability to deliver them anywhere in the world. They begin with an attack at Bagram Airfield, America's largest military base in Afghanistan. A second weapon is detonated in Battery Park in New York City. The blast levels a square mile of Manhattan, including the Financial District. Hundreds of thousands perish. The American economy is in chaos. Banks close their doors. The US supply chain is disrupted. Riots and looting break out while enemies in the Middle East burn US flags in celebration.

The stakes skyrocket when Islamabad CIA Station Chief Bill Gorman unearths evidence of a third bomb headed our way. Across two continents the chase is on to find the runaway terrorists led by the ruthless and capable Salma Bahmani, star agent of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, the dread ISI. She will stop at nothing to deliver what could be the final nail in America's coffin.

©2017 David Hunt and R. J. Pineiro (P)2017 Macmillan Audio

A great thriller

I had no plans to buy this book. Audible was having one of its 2 for 1 sales and I had selected the book that I really wanted and was looking for something else to add. I had never heard of the authors but the plot seemed interesting and I wanted something light to buy with the history book that was my main selection. I was not expecting much from the purchase as most of the books I get as second choice in one of Audible’s 2 for 1 sales are just OK. This book turned out to be a clear exception.

The book captured my interest right away. The characters were interesting, the story was long enough for there to be considerable character development, the plot seemed reasonable, given the thriller genre, and the events never struck me as being so unreasonable that I could not suspend belief. Some of the characters were a bit over-drawn, but there were no “super heroes” able to do unbelievable things on a regular basis. The book is full of interesting characters, the writing is clear and to the point, the descriptions of events seem reasonable and the book never seemed to me to be completely unbelievable. There were a couple of minor things in the book that struck me as unrealistic, surprisingly so considering that one of the authors is a military man and would surely know that no Naval Chief of Staff would hold the rank of Rear Admiral, and I thought that there was a bit too much detail in describing the weapons being used as I personally don’t need the entire sequence of model number characters that describe a weapon, but those are minor objections in an otherwise excellent book.

The narration is first class and I enjoyed the book so much that I will now look for other books by Mr Pineiro. In fact I enjoyed it so much that I began to think if this turned out to be the first of a series I would definitely buy the second when it became available. This is not great literature, but it is a great little thriller, at least as good as any other thriller I have bought recently and considerably better than most of them.

Outstanding

Unbelievable ride throughout, a can’t put it down masterpiece! So potentially real, it’s scary. And amazingly narrated.

Average military espionage thriller

At first I thought it was above average with weapons and tactics but it is not. Armored plates made of titanium, M2 used as a hand weapon, every good guy armed with an MP7 , etc.
That said the bar is pretty low. I just wish authors would do a little more research on the tactical side.

I do like that it's not 1 guy vs everyone. Superheroes are for comic books, this story does have multiple subplots and characters which you would expect in world events.

Hard to stay focused in the beginning

Narrator difficult at the beginning. It got better as the story continued . Personally I got lost in the beginning but I'm glad I stuck with it.

Very Intriguing

At first I wasn’t sure that this was going to be a worthwhile listen but I’m more then glad I stayed the course like Monica, I held on til the end.