Treaty Violation

Anthony C. Patton
BookSurge Publishing (2007)
ISBN 9781419651113
Reviewed by Thomas Gabrielli for Reader Views (8/07)


Helena Hernandez is murdered from a high-story apartment. A week later, her fiancée, CIA agent Tyler Broadman, is also murdered while trying to end a drug smuggling ring in Panama. Nicholas Lowe is called in to investigate and finish the job, with a promise of membership in “The Order,” supposedly an elite class of CIA operatives. The driving mystery here is finding out who murdered Helena -- how and why.

Actually, the big mystery is why one would spend time reading this novel. Sad to report, there’s a lot wrong with this novel, very much wrong.

My big gripe, as in some of my previously reviewed novels, is the story’s lack of character development. The book begins satisfactorily enough, with the murder of Tyler Broadman in his car, during a CIA operation. There’s nothing like a good graphic murder to begin a novel! However, Nicholas Lowe is brought in to follow the investigation. He is introduced so matter-of-factly, as if we should be familiar with this character from previous stories. There is no history, nor formal introduction; he just appears which suddenly puts the novel on shaky ground.

For instance, take his opening banter with Louise Paterson, administrative assistant to K. I suppose Louise is Patton’s equivalent to James Bond’s Miss Moneypenny, as is his K to Fleming’s M, but that’s where the similarities end. Louise appears in the first few pages of the book, never to be heard or seen from again. What’s the point?

Patton introduces situations and characters throughout, but many are never developed fully. He goes off on tangents, failing to finalize episodes that turn out to be meaningless to the development of the story.

There’s also the political aspect of this novel. Unless you are a history buff or have some interest in Panama, the canal and the treaty behind it, many of the long political debates here turn out to be boring and lead to no decisive action. And many of these debates are really not very integral to the storyline. Basically, this is a story about drug trafficking, bogged down with political ramifications.

And then there’s the issue of the “mystery,” which is one lacking suspense and interest. There are no clues given to allow the reader to play along. This is simply straight storytelling: murder committed. Characters introduced. This one did it.

In conclusion, I would not recommend curling up with “Treaty Violation” for a good read. Rather, I would wait for the movie. Expect a long wait. A very long wait.

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