The tension in this one is really good, but after everything is said and done, I still find the Cormac possession bit to be a little out there. That's saying something, considering all the cray shit that goes down in these books.

I have to say, I really love how the author handles women being in the military and especially in Special Forces. Given the demographic of these types of novels, they're not in the forefront of the story (Major Courtland being the exception), but they are treated with the very same respect that the men are. When 'Circe shoots someone for the first time, Joe does not treat her shock as if she were a delicate flower of a woman - he treats her as if she were a human who just took the life of another. When DeeDee gets slashed by a hostile, it's not because she's a weak woman - it's because the hostile is just that good. He nearly gets the upper hand on the main character, that's how fast he is. We all know that secondary characters rarely have the luck and talents that protagonists do. That's not a sex/gender thing, it's just the way of the literary world. I like that.

This book didn't particularly have an overarching plot, but Mma Ramotswe is such an interesting character that she was the story. There were so many lines that I enjoyed.

"'We are the ones who first ploughed the earth when Modise (God) made it,' ran an old Setswana poem. 'We were the ones who made the food. We are the ones who look after the men when they are little boys, when they are young men, and when they are old and about to die. We are always there. But we are just women, and nobody sees us.'" - pg. 28

"'Boys, men,' she said. 'They're all the same. They think that this thing is something special and they're all so proud of it. They do not know how ridiculous it is.'" - pg. 30

"These men were like leeches; they sucked away at the goodness of a woman's heart until it was dry and all her love had been used up. That took a long time, he knew, because women seemed to have vast reservoirs of goodness in them." - pg. 36

And for something different:

"She felt terribly sorry for people who suffered from constipation, and she knew that there were many who did. There were probably enough of them to form a political party - with a chance of government perhaps - but what would such a party do if it was in power? Nothing, she imagined. It would try to pass legislation, but would fail." - pg. 141