Brute Force (Jericho Quinn #6)

Brute Force, by Marc Cameron

January, 2016  Pinnacle Books

They were having a book sale at my local library the other month and I took a look at the paperback section. I was surprised to see the Pinnacle logo on the spine of this particular book. I pulled it off the shelf, to of course see that it was the typical too-long “suspense thriller” of today, complete with mandatorily bland Photoshopped cover. But when I got to the back cover it was a different story; I had to check the copyright, given how topical the back cover copy was. I knew without question that I was going to hand over the fifty cents they were asking for the book. 

I am completely out of touch with the modern publishing world and so was unfamiliar with the Jericho Quinn series by Marc Cameron. This is the sixth volume, and I believe there have been a few more since. They are all Pinnacle PBOs, but as mentioned they’re clearly more “upmarket” than Pinnacle PBOs of yore. I mean there are even industry blurbs on the back cover! But really Brute Force, while entertaining, is of a piece with modern suspense thrillers, with that same sort of “PG” mainstream vibe. Interestingly, it’s a lot like a Gold Eagle publication, like a Stony Man or SuperBolan joint, only with less action, violence, and gun p0rn, with a bit more focus on suspense and characterization. 

That said, hero Jericho Quinn is such a cipher I had a hard time picturing him. We’re not given much description or setup for him, which is understandable given that this is the sixth book he’s appeared in. But basically he’s your typical ex-military badass who, at least in Brute Force, acts almost in the capacity of a vintage men’s adventure protagonist in that he’s a one-man enforcer for a rogue intelligence director. Quinn is in his late 30s, sports a beard for most of this novel, and has a seven year-old daughter who is currently hiding in Europe for unexplained reasons (again, likely in a previous book). He also has a fondness for motorcycles. 

He also, par for the course of our miserable modern age, has absolutely no libido. Brute Force is kind of unintentionally humorous in that it has the setup of a vintage men’s adventure novel (only bloated to 423 pages, compared to the 200 pages max of the old days), with Quinn spending most of the novel running around the world with a sexy Chinese secret agent. At least I assume she’s sexy, as Cameron, again par for the miserable modern course, doesn’t exploit her in the least. I think the most we get is an offhand comment by a character that she’s “pretty,” and there’s also a part where she’s riding behind Quinn on a motorcycle and wearing a short skirt and a bunch of guys catcall her. And even though she and Quinn get as close as two people can get, even sleeping in the same bed at times, even pretending to be married at one point, there is zero in the way of any sex. 

I mean folks it’s sad and depressing how emasculated male protagonists have become in today’s mainstream thriller fiction. Now Cameron seems to imply that Quinn’s heart belongs to another gal, a spunky fellow operative named Veronica “Ronnie” Garcia, but the two aren’t even on the same page together until the end of the novel. Before that Quinn spends days flying around the world with the Chinese babe, Song – and for all they know they could be killed at any moment. They see each other shower, Song cares for Quinn when he’s injured (which is often), and they clearly seem to have chemistry, so you’d think a friendly roll in the hay might not be too out of the question, especially given that the world might end if they fail in their mission…but nope, it’s a more progressive age, folks, and we can’t be having any of the sordid thrills that were once part and parcel of escapist fiction for men. 

Even the plot is fairly generic, and could have been lifted from any of those Gold Eagle books: terrorists, a Maguffin weapon of mass destruction, lots of globetrotting, a couple shootouts and car chases. Basically a sadistic pair of Chinese brothers break out of a hellish prison in Pakistan in the opening pages, make their way to China, and from there intend to sow havoc in the US with a secret weapon they’ll get from a Chinese accomplice. Jericho Quinn and Song, a Chinese agent who wants to prevent her country being framed for an attack on the US with the WOD, travel from country to country, trying to stop the threat. Along the way we have colorful sequence like a car chase in Croatia and a contest with horses that Quinn takes part in which seems inspired by a scene in Rambo III. 

The helluva it is, this “terrorist of the week” main plot line detracts from the much more interesting subplot, which has to do with the rogue administration that Quinn is trying to stop. I forgot to mention, but the President and Vice President are in league with the terrorists, and are behind the plot to attack America, so as to start a war with China. And Quinn and his accomplices are on their Most Wanted list. Quinn works with a former intelligence guy who gives him his orders, sending him around the globe on this task and that. But nowhere do we get an idea what makes Quinn tick; I mean there’s no personal impetus we’re told of that causes him to act in this capacity. There’s nothing overly “heroic” about him, and he doesn’t even display much patriotism. In addition to Quinn there’s Thibodeaux, Quinn’s eyepatched sidekick, a mountain of muscle Marine who calls Quinn “chair force,” mocking Quinn’s Air Force background. There’s also Miyagi, a Japanese woman who trains Quinn in fighting techniques and carries a sword into battle…and yes, the book actually has a female ninja in it, which is as pulp as you can get, but Cameron stays on the level. 

Actually the book has two female ninjas in it, the other being Ran, a cruel Japanese woman who serves as the bodyguard for the despotic Vice President; she has tattoos all over her body and also casually sleeps with the VP, but again there’s nothing sordid in the novel. That is save for one bit where Ran and the VP are taking a shower together, but this scene – like many in the novel – doesn’t do much to move the plot along. There are many such “filler” scenes in Brute Force, where Cameron will drop in on his large cast of characters as if to check in on them, but nothing happens. It’s clearly just a way for Cameron to meet his big word count. 

But as mentioned it’s the subplot that made me drop my hard-earned, uh, quarters on this book. When I read that back cover I had to go to the copyright page to confirm the book hadn’t just been published. I mean check this out: 

So how prescient is this back cover? Let me count the ways. Well first you’ve got the “biological attack,” which should be pretty self-explanatory; we don’t hear much about it in the actual novel, but I can only assume it was created in a Chinese lab. But the super-interesting stuff concerns the rogue administration that stole power through a coup. Presumably the previous volume gave the background on how this happened, but in Brute Force the seditious administration is in full power. And folks you’d have to be living in a deep, dark pit of denial to not see the similarities to today. I mean for one we learn the new administration is less interested in governing the country than it is in criminalizing its rivals. We also learn the President is a corrupt and mornic figurehead whose staff constantly walks back his statements. Not only that, but the corrupt and moronic President also has a fondness for young women – okay, maybe not that young, but still. We even learn that a certain federal bureau has become fully politicized, sending out sadistic agents to capture and interrogate anyone who dares to oppose the junta; yep, that tracks, too. All of this is so uncomfortably close to the US of 2022…not bad for a book published in January of 2016. 

Perhaps the only difference here is that in Brute Force those who oppose President Drake and VP McKeon truly must live underground, carrying guns and getting in shootouts with the FBI agents who come after them. The irony of course being that Quinn and comrades are the heroes who are looking to save the country, despite being villified by a rogue administration and hunted by its jackbooted thugs. Again, as prescient as you can friggin’ get! I mean I wanted to know more about this country Cameron gives us. Does it too suffer from a Brandon-style economy? (Which by the way is totally the fault of Russia! And Covid! A-and unicorns!) Has the voice of anyone who opposes the rogue administration also been cut off? Has the White House been surrounded by barbed wire to “preserve and protect our precious democracy?” Does the administration decry fascism while espousing fascism? 

Unfortunately that damned “terrorist of the week” main plot gets in the way of all this. I was so much more interested in the rogue administration element, with Ronnie Garcia and Win Palmer, Quinn’s boss, staying in a safehouse in Virginia and trying to find members of congress who will believe their story that the President and Vice President are traitors who are literally in league with terrorists. This entails another nice action scene with FBI agents getting mowed down by Miyagi’s blade, but after which more time is spent on Ronnie Garcia’s unfortunate plight as an FBI captive. This though entails another cool bit where Thibodeaux and Miyagi go to her rescue. This sequence to me was the highlight of the book and could’ve easily been expanded. Instead it’s that damn A plot that takes up more time, complete with an anticlimactic (to me at least) chase across Seattle as Quinn tries to prevent the Chinese Maguffin WOMD from being unleashed – while at the same time somehow unmasking the President and Vice President as traitors. 

Cameron’s writing is good, and he really has that Gold Eagle vibe to his prose. I mean this book could easily be a volume of Stony Man. He POV-hops a lot (ie changing perspectives with no warning), and he confusingly refers to characters by multiple names in the narrative. Initially I thought “Ronnie,” “Veronica,” and “Garcia” were three different people, but they’re all the same gal. Also he cheats on some of the payoffs. Like most notably with the VP. This is the guy behind it all – remember, the President is a corrupt and moronic figurehead (if you take nothing else from my review, be sure to take that!) – but Cameron denies us the expected confrontation with Quinn and instead focuses on the VP’s relationship with Ran. (That said, there’s yet another subplot here involving Ran and Miyagi, but it’s not resolved this volume.) Worst of all, Quinn’s confrontation with the Feng brothers – the terrorists he has been chasing for the entire damn novel – is almost perfunctorily handled, with Quinn instead chasing down some newly-introduced villain in the final pages. 

It occurred to me toward the end of Brute Force that it’s a wonder Hollywood hasn’t jumped on the Jericho Quinn series, particularly this volume. Because – and in another divergence from vintage men’s adventure – this book is stuffed to the gills with the “empowered women of color” that are mandatory today. There’s ass-kicking Hispanic (sorry, Latinx) beauty Ronnie Garcia, and not one but three ass-kicking Asian women: Miyagi, Quinn’s ninja-type sensei; Ran, the bodyguard of the evil Vice President; and Song, the Chinese agent. Again, I presume the three of them are pretty as well; Cameron doesn’t tell us, probably due to editorial mandate. (“For God’s sake, do not exploit the female characters – the two or three women who might read this book could get offended!!”) 

Anyway, Brute Force kept me interested for most of its runtime, but it seemed clear that Cameron was struggling to fill the pages at times. He does a good job of it, though, and he’s certainly got his readers: just look how many reviews this and the other installments of Jericho Quinn have garnered on Amazon and Goodreads. But in a way it was just like all the other modern suspense thrillers I’ve passed by in bookstores over the past few decades, only livened up by the unwitting prescience in regards to our modern day. The only question of course is where Jericho Quinn is in the real world. We need him now more than ever.