Ultimate Objective by Jack Hutchison

Title: Ultimate Objective
Author: Jack Hutchison

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Honestly, I couldn’t finish it. I rate most books I can’t finish as 1; I gave this a 2 because I read 50% of it before giving up. I kept waiting for it to get better, and it didn’t.

I found the story disjointed and the storytelling confusing. The story skims the surface, resulting in a shallow story that’s difficult to get into, and shallow characters that are difficult to connect with. When the only character I found even somewhat interesting is killed and I didn’t gasp in surprise, I knew I needed to just give up on this book. The numerous grammatical and spelling errors were an annoying additional distraction.

In my opinion, the racial stereotypes and sexist depiction of women only added to the shallow characterizations. I don’t know if that’s the author’s idea of “tough talk,” or if that’s what the author thinks makes the book more male-oriented (do men really want to read this kind of thing?), but I didn’t feel it added anything to the story or the characters. I’m not offended by it, mostly because I’m not easily offended, but I do feel it’s a lazy path to take, and not necessarily the best one. I was amused that the author threw former Soviet Union tough guys into the mix with radical Muslims, since radical Muslims have replaced Soviet spies in thriller novels since 9-11. It wasn’t enough to keep me reading, however.

I recommend skipping this one.