Eyes of the Hammer: The Green Berets: Dave Riley #1

first part extremely boring as is super technical. Last Half well written Interesting characters. Will be reading2nd in series

Drug cartels are creating lots of problems in Columbia. Riley and his team are charged with going in and settling things down. Of course things always wind up going sideways somewhere. The writing is excellent with the descriptions of events bringing you right into the action. The characters are very real. You are right there with them. Of course it is a page turner. I really enjoyed this book.

Mediocre writing, plot generally predictable. I chose to spend time elsewhere rather than completing the read.

Knowing these guys are out there doing this kind of work continues to blow me away, as did this book. Not only an education in the nature of Special Forces missions, but that of the sophisticated tools of the trade. Have always wanted to be a fly on the wall in top security exchanges; getting inside those heads, many of whom you know will never prove an asset and some of which will prove the liability. Also scary is the detailed numbers and descriptions of just how successful those cartels are and the power they wield. Interesting the way we get to follow the timeline of the various players in the plot, switching the scenes between them to give us the full impact of how it's all going down. As Dave Riley loses most of his team, it all boils down to him, or so it appears. He's long been in the Special Forces and had his share of experiences wherever the Green Beret were required to get the job done and exerts his field of expertise with swift intelligence. The mission to get in this South American country and slow down the drug pipeline to the U.S. looks as if it will be successful on the first blush, though working with a Columbian president with an ulterior motive of his own could prove tricky when it becomes obvious there is more than one mole gnawing away at the fabric of the mission. Bless the dedication, strength, and devotion of these men. I got this as a free Kindle download; wouldn't hesitate to recommend it and love it when the book proves to be 3 a.m. worthy!

After Colombian drug cartel members assassinate a Colombian judge on US soil killing a bunch of schoolchildren in the process, Colombian President Alegre authorizes the US to conduct military operations in his country to covertly destroy the cartels. He is playing a dangerous game however. One of the drug cartel kingpins, known as Ring Man, is using Alegre to wipe out the other drug cartels, but President Alegre has different plans.David Riley is the leader of a 6 man Special Forces team assigned to verify the locations provided by intelligence and call in attack helicopters if the information is accurate. The first two missions go off without a hitch. But things go to pieces quickly and in the third scouting mission, 4 team members are killed and one captured. Only Riley escapes. In a thriller of this type you can guess what happens next, but I won't spoil it.I was impressed with the amount of details given by the author regarding the planning of the missions. The fact that they didn't just jump in guns blazing really highlighted the "reality" of the situation. To successfully accomplish any goal takes careful planning.I'm definitely late to the party with this series which was first published in 1991, but I'm glad to have found it, and have already bought the second and third books.

I enjoy Mr. Mayer's Green Beret series quite a bit. They are written with a fine attention to detail - when it comes to Army in general and special operations in particular. For that reason, I was a bit dis appointed with the lack of accurate research in this book as he unrolled te tactical evaluation exercise at Plattsburgh AFB early in the book. He seems to have "mailed it in" when describing teh challenges faced by Riley and his team. For example only:* There are not now (nor were there at the time frame being written about) any such thing as "Air Police". In the time frame he was using the force he was describing were known as "Security Police" and had the multifaceted functions of law enforcement, nuclear security and air base ground defense.* The description of the active defense measures was woefully underplayed. In a storage are such as he described there would have been no less than 12 personnel on duty divided into security response teams, and fire teams.* the passive defense systems were (are in fact) much more comprehensive and technologically advanced than described, capable of detecting, motion, electromagnetic changes, fence disturbance, etc.USAF Security Forces (as they are now known) are routinely tested and evaluated by everyone from DoD - DoE.Other than that quibble, this is another very good book in the series.

This is a great book, well written with great character development. Basic story involves interactions between various alphabet agencies and criminal activity in Columbia.There is even a developing love story and a strong female character…equals in love and battle. Loved the book and those readers interested in military style action will as well, I’d think.

I think this book will appeal to members of the army and anyone with a particularinterest in weaponry. For me, as a lay person, I found the great details about themilitary personnel, their functions and the weapons they used, boring. I skipped wholeparagraphs until I got back to the action.Dave Riley, special forces, and his team are sent to Columbia with the secret permissionof the Columbian President to destroy some drug cartels. The team is being assisted by anexpert on Columbia and Kate, a CIA agent. One glaring mistake, in my eyes, was that, despitethe mission being top secret, they used a known alcoholic - a disaster waiting to happen.Nothing changes in that those at the top and politicians tried to distance themselves from anyfallout! The action sequences were good, when I skimmed over the descriptions of the weapons.I am sure more military inclined readers would give this 4 or 5 stars - it was just not for me.

An older American military novel in the green beret series, its ok and for its time it was good but, to be honest, there's a lot better out there now. Dave Riley is the main character and not a bad one at that, he's genuinely likeable from a time when America's military was confident and strong and not bound by the current ROE in theatre which reflects in the fairly true to life action. it's a slow book to get started with too much planning and chatter at the start if its free go for it otherwise I would give it a miss.

Many thanks for a fantastic readI have already loaded book twoContinue with the good workVery best wishes

Loved this. Really well written and i liked the detail given about the equipment used. Highly recommended if you like a good action thriller

Up and at'e-mail from the get go. Fast paced thriller set in a hostile environment that draws on the interservice rivalry which also binds together at the crunch point. Well worth the read