The Archangel Project

The Archangel Project (2008) C.S. Graham

October ‘Toby’ Guinness is an Army vet who was washed out with a psychiatric discharge after an incident in Iraq.

“You didn’t want to go to Iraq?” said the Colonel. “Are you kidding? The only people who actually want to go to Iraq are either seriously delusional or very, very scary individuals.”

Jax Alexander is a CIA operative who has been sent to Section 13 because the head of the CIA hates him and is looking for a reason to get rid of him.

Jax flashed the man a friendly smile and held up an Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms badge. The badge looked real because it was—just like the ones from the FBI and the Office of Homeland Security, and the press corps card Jax also carried. He even had an IRS ID he used when he really wanted to scare people.

Together, THEY FIGHT CRIME!

Yeah, that never gets old for me. Sorry. (No, I’m not.)

To help pay for her school bills, Toby started working with Henry Youngblood, who has been struggling to fund his Remote Viewing project.

If you think Remote Viewing sounds familiar, it’s because you remember the book/move “Men Who Stare at Goats.” This was a real project, funded by our government–and other governments–before it became completely discredited (for a variety of reasons [some of which were very good reasons]).

Toby is actually a very good Remote Viewer, which is a problem, because she’s seen something she should not have, and upset people who have the ability to Do Something about her.

This is a very interesting book, first and foremost because it’s based on real projects. It was co-written by Steven Harris (a former Army Intelligence officer) and Candice Proctor (aka C.S. Harris), and they have strong opinions both about private companies involved with the military…

“The FBI gets some ex–Special Forces people, but not many these days. They can make too much money working for outfits like Blackwater. Our government trains them, then they go work for private security companies who rent them back to the taxpayers for ten times what they’d cost if they’d stayed in the military.”

…and the state of their home, New Orleans.

“Now? You want to go to the Lower Ninth Ward now? At nine-thirty at night? Are you crazy? Do you have any idea what it’s like down there?”

The politics is pretty heavy, which is possibly why this series seems to have ended after three books. Which is too bad, because I quite like Toby and Jax.
Rating: 8/10

Published by HarperCollins

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