OUT OF TIME

4 stars out of 5

This is a well-written story, but unless you’re ultra-sympathetic to environmental causes and vehemently opposed to the current political administration, I suspect you won’t be thrilled with it. Personally, climate change, carbon footprints, the dangers of fracking and such are issues that need to be addressed yesterday – and I admit to spitting out my mouthful of coffee to guffaw at the description of the U.S. President (no names, of course) as a “belligerent, bumbling egomaniac with the brains of a cabbage.”

The FBI has launched a manhunt for a terrorist known as Green Man; most recently, he used a drone to blow a hole in a large dam in Idaho – killing a dozen or so innocent people who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. This is his sixth act of violence; reactions range from that of the FBI – he’s a murderer who must be apprehended at all costs – to environmental activist groups who consider him a savior and justify the deaths as casualties of a necessary war to save the world from extinction.

Enter computer wizard and FBI agent Tom Smith, a mid-20-something guy who’s been tapped to join the team charged with capturing Green Man dead or alive (and the sooner the better). Tom’s own attitude falls somewhere in the middle; he’s a staunch environmentalist, but he doesn’t fully believe that the end always justifies the means. Still, he’s committed to the investigation, which involves one of the activist groups whose leader loves Green Man’s mindset but not his tactics and her teenage daughter, who favors promoting the cause no matter what.

Complicated personal backgrounds and relationships are a big part of the story, none of which I can describe more fully without giving away too much (same with the ending, of course, which for some reason is reminiscent of “Goldfinger,” one of my favorite James Bond movies in which the long arm of the FBI reaches out to disarm the nuclear bomb with just (wait for it!) 007 seconds left on the timer).

Even though there’s a little too much “preaching” going on here, I thoroughly enjoyed the book (with the caution, once again, that it helps to be close to the same mind as the author). Thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for allowing me to read and review it.

Out of Time by David Klass (Dutton, July 2020); 384 pp.