Beloved Enemy: A Jack McClure Novel (Jack McClure/Alli Carson Novels)

Beloved Enemy is the fifth and final book featuring Jack McClure, a non-stop action hero whose dyslexia gives him a different way of interpreting the world. This takes up the story almost immediately after the events described in Father Night with Dennis Paull, the Secretary of Homeland Security, briefing Jack on his increasing certainty there’s a mole in the highest levels of US government. That night, Paull is murdered and Jack framed. He therefore has to go on the run and try to clear his name by identifying the mole.

This is not the most original of plots and, to be honest, the situations which follow pile up some of the best-known ideas in a steady stream of chases, fights, and near-death experiences. Frankly, this all grows rather tedious as the key players who have emerged over the series converge to fight over the McGuffin. In this case, it’s supposed to be a vast pile of wealth and enough blackmail material to be able to force most important people around the world to follow instructions. So if you’re already a fan, this ends the story (by my standards, in a somewhat unsatisfactory way). Otherwise, this is not the place to start reading the series.