Alpha by Greg Rucka

Alpha
by Greg Rucka
2012 Mulholland Books

Die Hard in a theme park.  Or could have been.  Should have been.

Jad Bell is a retired Delta Force operator who becomes head of security for Disneyland clone "Wilsonville".  Terrorists hold it hostage the day his estranged daughter visits, and he has to stop it.

The setting was a complete waste.  We get chapters on the historical background of the park and their characters, but very little attention on the rides.  Everything is small scale - all but about a dozen park guests are successfully evacuated, and most of the action takes place in the utility tunnels.  Half the time is Bell waiting for backup, which comes in the way of a whopping two operatives.  I've seen unpaid ticket roundups with more backup.

The action is sparse and tactical, more thriller than action.  Lot's of people talking about their intel and pissing contests between agencies.  About the only gimmicky piece in the book, and the biggest highlight, is a standoff where the terrorists and hostages all have on mascot outfits, which was fun but dumb on several levels.

A good chunk of the wordage seemed to constantly call attention to the absurd coincidences and plotholes.  In reading a Die Hard clone, I'm prepared to put up with some silliness, but the characters are constantly remarking on them - "What are the odds?".  Here, Rucka actually writes his way out of most of them, and I'm assuming the rest are covered in the sequel.  This meant I spent a good chunk of the book thinking he was being stupid only to find out he was being clever, which I can admire, but also isn't the best way to enjoy an novel.

Overall, the book is a failure because it does not have an action sequence involving an operating ride, the closest scene involving climbing up a defunct coaster's lift hill.  Instead, I bring you this from the Clones:



Spoiler, and some whining, here.  Starting around I, the Jury, there was a trend of authors having their protagonist kill a woman to show how hardboiled they were.  I have no problem with fictional members of any gender, but it all seemed a bit forced, and some seemed to go out of their way to outdo each other.

I've seen a little bit of this in current thrillers - this, the first Jack Ryan movie, Seal Team 6, where a special ops type murders an unarmed, elderly non-combatant, all in the name of raw justice.  Since Watergate, it's generally been agreed that the government are always the baddies.  After 9/11, we saw intelligence agencies more likely be the good guys again, but some authors try to have it both ways.

I don't much trust either, especially fictionally, so I have a hard time caring when a military secret, off the books, illegal operation has complaints about the CIA doing the same.  Or when the character is like: "This is horrible.  The government is murdering people in cold blood and covering it up.  To counter this, I, an employee of the government, must murder someone in cold blood and cover it up.  For America."  That's why Mack Bolan and the A Team should have stayed underground.

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