W. E. B. Griffin Rogue Asset by Andrews & Wilson (Presidential Agent Book 9)

Extremely well written. Great action scenes. No superfluous backstory. A pleasure read. McCoy is a very good addition to the merry men.

What a great read. I’ve missed the world of Charlie Castillo and his Merry Outlaws! I look forward to more!!!!

I want to start out by saying I really enjoyed this book. While it doesn't have the same flow and included character backstory of a W.E.B. Griffin novel, authors Andrews & Wilson make it clear they aren't trying to directly copy his style. And while they did a great job with this novel in terms of readability and enjoyability, the book almost felt like a timeline/canon reset, much the same way Star Wars canon was reset when Disney purchased Star Wars; certain things remained, but a lot of things were deemed to have never happened. Although there may be some minor spoilers in the rest of this review, nothing in terms of the overall plot or events of the book will be given away. What I liked - The authors' differences from W.E.B. Griffin's writing style were a combination of relief and enjoyable. While I have never counted the times Griffin insisted on having characters with names that included first initial, middle name, last name, I know he had a penchant for it and that is one of my very few criticisms of Griffin's works. It can honestly get distracting reading the names of characters such as "A. Franklin Lamelle" or "C. Harry Whelen" or "J. Porter Hamilton". Andrews & Wilson avoided that and, at least by this reader, it was appreciated. I liked the introduction of new characters, including the introduction of Captain P. K. "Killer" McCoy, who is the grandson of Kenneth R. "Killer" McCoy from The Corps series. Not only was he an enjoyable character who brought about fond memories of when I read The Corps series, but "Junior" and Ani were both characters who grabbed my attention. I also liked the story itself. It was written and flowed in a way that allowed me to visualize the events in my mind, as if I was watching a movie. And of all the Presidential Agent novels, this is the first one I can definitely imagine being a fast-paced action movie. What I didn't like - As others have mentioned, I didn't like the time-jump. When we last saw Charley in "Hazardous Duty", it was the year 2007 and Charley was in his late 30s (37 or 38). In this novel, the specific year is never mentioned. In this novel, Charley is 57, which would put the year at 2027. While I can live with that, I had a very difficult time with not knowing what happened in those 2 decades in between. I didn't like the absence of characters from the previous novels. Save for brief appearances by "Abuela" and General McNab, and more than brief appearances by Natalie Cohen, none of the characters from previous books appeared. The only hints of previous characters were brief mentions of "the old days" and the "Merry Band of Outlaws". No Pevsner. No "Sweaty". No Cousin Fernando. No Vic D'Alessandro. No Lester Bradley. Absolutely zero mention. I also didn't like the way Natalie Cohen was portrayed in this particular book. While Griffin was very careful with her character development, painting her in a very wholesome light in that she rarely, if ever said anything worse than "darn", this version of Cohen was not afraid to drop an "F" bomb or an "S" bomb now and then. I also didn't like the way both Cohen and Charley were portrayed as if they had a strong dislike for each other. Based on Griffin's "Presidential Agent" novels, they both had a strong admiration and respect for each other and both seemed to genuinely like each other. Cohen may not have liked how Charley operated in those novels, but she liked Charley the person. That brings me back to what I mentioned in the beginning of this review - it felt like a complete reset in terms of characters and character development, almost as if the characters and events of the previous 8 novels never happened. That feeling is exacerbated by the missing 20 years (or at least a few chapters explaining the last 20) of Charley's life.

This book does W. E. B. Griffin proud. Can’t wait for a follow up. My kind of butt kicking story!

A welcome addition to the series. This is a great reboot of the series with characters you already know. The authors manage to keep the series going and remain true to the legacy

I had read all 8 previous books in this series enjoying all but book 8 which deviated from the format in an attempt to mirror a MASH episode. It is difficult when the original author (WEB Griffin ) has passed away and a new authors take over writing the series. It helps that this book takes place approximately 20 years after the time frame of the originals and that it introduces new characters. Within the story line references are made to to both Pick's grandparents and parents. When the authors continue the series these references should be flushed out. Given the current time frame of the novel it is reasonable to believe that both Ken McCoy, His wife "Ernie, and the original Malcolm "Pick" Pickering have passed away but their son Pickering Kenneth McCoy is still alive. It would be nice if some additional information on their lives would be included in a future book. This would also flush out their lives as they primary characters in "The Corps" series by WEB Griffin which ended in the Korean War when the characters were in their 30's. Additionally in the last book of the series Charlie wed his wife Svetlana who was expecting their first child there is no mention of either his wife or child in this book. Also Svetlana's brother and cousin in Argentina. Including information on them would provide continuity for readers of the previous books in this series. In closing, I would recommend this book to any first time reader of the series or to a longtime follower of WEB Griffin's original books of the Presidential Agent series

Should list in the description that it’s not really a W.E.B Griffin written book since he passed away some time ago.

I really enjoyed many of the earlier W.E.B. Griffin books, and if anything, this one is even better. They had his son try to carry on the series but that was a miserable failure. The last book I read by the son (Butterworth IV) just stopped in the middle of the story, apparently after it reach the contractually required number of words. After that, I thought I'd never read another WEBG book. Then I noticed that the rights holders had decided to hire actual professionals (Andrews & Wilson) to carry on the series so I took a gamble on this book. I'm very glad I did. it's well written, fast paced and, if anything, better than ol' WEB would have done himself. I'm looking forward to the further adventures of the Presidential Agent/s. Highly recommended.

Very good book

After the passing of WEB Griffin, I had hopes that the last two series would be continued by Butterworth IV. Sadly not the case. Am reading all series over and over to get to know the characters in play, was thus disappointed when only the bear minimum of characters returned, the grandmother could not have been 85 in the last book. No mention of Svetlana their child, her brother and cousin. Nor of Fernando, two-gun Yung or of Lester or any of the others. Let alone his German background or piloting skills were not mentioned. Let alone the most important member: Max, there should have been a Max by his side. . But for the most part an average shooter book without the hart of WEB Griffin series. The introduction of McCoy can almost be seen as being added as an afterthought for the character… No backstories over the past 20 years. Was looking forward. Prior to reading this poor attempt of a WEB Griffin novel, forced myself to read the other books of the series first so I was “up to date” on the characters, soo really dissatisfied with the book. To me it seems that both authors did not really have read the first 8 books, nor really understood the dynamics of the characters. I can only hope they read these reviews and learn from the mistakes made…

I have been a fan of WEB Griffin books since his first novel and have eagerly awaited each new book, spending delightful time reading and never being disappointed. With his unfortunate passing in 2019, I wasn't sure whether we would see another book of his characters, and if we did, whether it would live up to the standards set. It does. Really well. Andrews & Wilson have tried to adopt as much of Griffin's style of prose as possible, and while the first few chapters had me leery of the whole endeavour, their writing and the plot got me hooked. I read the book in two days, thoroughly enjoying both the writing style (which, in hind sight, is very Griffin-esque) and the plot, which is well thought through. The character development (good ol' Charley is back in action) is excellent, and we have new people to learn and care about. It's been a long time since the last Griffin book, and while Andrews and Wilson have done an excellent novel adhering to Griffin's legacy, I hope they continue to infuse a little of their styles into the future novels. This is an excellent book. A good, fun, "one more page" novel in the best tradition of Griffin. Thanks, guys, and can we have more, soon, please?

Well written story,with a lot of twists and turns.A stringend story,sometimes waiting for surprises.Easy to read !! Waiting for the next published book,maybe with a mention of what had happend to charlys wife,the russian

I enjoyed reading The Presidential Agent series by W.E.B. Griffin and I was glad to hear the series might be continued by two authors. Although twenty years have passed since the last book, I was looking forward to seeing if there was back history of what the characters in the story had been up to in the intervening years. Overall, I enjoyed the story and getting reacquainted with the characters.