Hazardous Duty

Presidential Agent Series, Book 8

By: W.E.B. Griffin, William E. Butterworth IV

Narrated by: Dick Hill

Length: 13 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

The Presidential Agent adventures return, in the most surprising novel yet in the #1 Wall Street Journal – and New York Times–bestselling series.

Mexican drug cartels are shooting up the streets of Laredo and El Paso. Somali pirates are holding three U.S. tankers for ransom. The President of the United States is fed up and, as Commander in Chief, has what he thinks is a pretty bright idea — to get hold of Colonel Charley Castillo and his merry band and get them on the case.

Unfortunately, that will be difficult. Everybody knows that the President hates Castillo’s guts, and has just had him forcibly retired from the military, and now Castillo’s men are scattered far and wide, many of them in hiding. There are also whispers that the President himself is unstable — the word “nutcake” has been mentioned.

How will it all play out? No one knows for sure, but for Castillo and company, only one thing is definite: This is going to be hazardous duty.

©2013 W.E.B. Griffin (P)2013 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved. Recorded by arrangement with G. P. Putnam’s Sons, a member of Penguin Group (USA) LLC.

Critic reviews

"Tough-fisted . . . hard-edged . . . Griffin’s formula is straightforward: Set up a bunch of obstacles, and let us watch Charley Castillo knock them down one at a time. His novels promise action, suspense, and rousing entertainment, and they never fail to deliver." ( Booklist)

Weakest Book in Presidential Agent Series

Before we had President Trump, I would have called the behavior of President Clendennon in this novel as completely unbelievable. So I was more open to that character's behavior. But the overall plot line -- the amazing Charlie Castillo being embraced by his bitter enemy Clendennon to save America both from Mexican drug cartels AND Somali pirates in only 90 days -- was tough to swallow in the beginning. The plot swings were just too far out there to be believable. Griffin finally jumped the shark.

Disappointing

Has Hazardous Duty turned you off from other books in this genre?

Hazardous Duty was the worst book in this series. Horribly disappointed.

Was Hazardous Duty worth the listening time?

NO!

Any additional comments?

For those that waited and waited for the next book in the series, this was a huge disappointment.

web griffins presidential series

Do you think Hazardous Duty needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

this series was excellent until the last two books. after clandenen became president the books took a serious nose dive. would try one more in the series, but if like the last two I will be done with them.

Any additional comments?

first five books in the series were hard to put down.

Editing would help!

I realize the book was intended to be 'comic relief' but please spend more time in the editing process. There is no reason to retell, retell, retell the same story in every book in the series but if you do get the facts right.

Wish I could get my credit back...

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The ending. It seemed he ran out of time and just stopped. Had the first books in the series ended like this I never would have made it past the first ones. I re-listened to the last 2 sections, because I hoped I had missed parts of the book. I had not. Very disappointing and abrupt ending!

What do you think your next listen will be?

Still debating if I should read the last book in the series.

What aspect of Dick Hill’s performance would you have changed?

Nothing. It was what he was reading...

Was Hazardous Duty worth the listening time?

NO, NEIN, Not at all!

Nice. Shot

I. Get the feeling that tho was written tongue in cheek. But also half in fun and wholly in earnest with the then admn in mind.

Awful way for series to END

Would you try another book from W.E.B. Griffin and William E. Butterworth and/or Dick Hill?

Yes, they are usually a great team.

What was most disappointing about W.E.B. Griffin and William E. Butterworth ’s story?

He says he wanted it like his mash series books, and even though I'm done with all his other books, I will not be reading the MASH series.

Was Hazardous Duty worth the listening time?

NO

Any additional comments?

I have read or listened to every book of every series and this is the only one I tell people to skip...

Good story ruined by silly concept

This was a good story that was ruined by the author’s idea to make it like a MASH novel. It trivialized what could have been a good story and (presumably) ending for the series. I keep hoping that there will be another book in the series, just to get the bad taste out of my mouth.

This is my fourth or maybe even fifth time listening to the series. I keep thinking that I won’t listen to this one, but I need the elements of the story to feel it is complete. Fortunately I fell asleep and missed the last hour or so where the biggest part of the silliness is.

I’m sure that Griffin did a superior job on the MASH novels he wrote, but that concept doesn’t work with Castillo and the Outlaws (in my opinion). The first time I heard this book, my incredulousness kept growing as the silliness increased. I thought to myself, W.E.B. has lost it! I had read/listened to well over 50 of his books and this was the first time that I could barely make it through one of them. I finally got to the afterward where he acknowledged his difficulty with the story and his decision to use a MASH approach. I understood, but didn’t agree.

Dick Hill is one of my favorite narrators, and he did a masterful job. Unfortunately that wasn’t enough to redeem the trivial feel.

If you have read all of the books in the series, by all means listen to or read this one to tie up the loose ends. Hopefully you will enjoy the concept more than I did.

well worth it

loved it and was disappointed it had to end. looking forward to others of this quality

not as good as the others

You can tell it was a different writer the story was changed not as good It was still OK decent but not the same