Judging from the title and the book jacket blurb, Drastic Measures wants to be a Tom Clancy style thriller. But the book has nothing to do with political intrigue and everything to do with the downward spiral of a selfish Wall Street financial consultant.

Despite the fact that Jason Melby bills himself as a technical consultant to the FBI and other federal government agencies on matters of national security and international intelligence, the book shows little evidence of real practical knowledge of any of the things he writes about.

We're supposed to take it on faith that the lead character, Zach Taylor, is a gifted young Wall Street consultant, and yet his careless actions indicate a lack of common sense and street smarts, the basic minimums for such a job.

More than half the book is exposition, as we follow Zach through his gradual financial and personal decline and he makes foolish, selfish decisions that end up costing him a fortune and endangering his wife. Ultimately, he steals money from a drug dealer who then comes gunning for him.

Meanwhile, we learn about another character, a Vietnam vet named Sammy, who has extremely vivid flashback dreams and who is far more likable, if only because his personal wounds are less rooted in greed and self-interest.

But when the two characters meet, it soon becomes obvious that the Vietnam vet is only there to serve as a plot point. He's a disposable hero figure who will sacrifice himself so that the main character and his equally selfish and obnoxious wife can survive.

I think the author made the mistake that bad action movies make, which is that he assumed action was a good substitute for character development and plot. Unfortunately, it isn't, and it doesn't work any better in a literary genre than it does on film.

PublishAmerica, 2004; ISBN: 1-4137-1971-6