“The Hostage” has captured me.

In the book, Charley Castillo, a Special Forces Major, is working as an assistant to the Secretary of Homeland Security, when he’s called to investigate the kidnapping of the wife of Jack Masterson – the U.S. deputy ambassador to Argentina.

The second in “The Presidential Agent” series, “The Hostage” is an incredible combination of current events – the U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq – with military and government workings. There’s even a discernible plot – hooray!

Author W.E.B. Griffin knows his stuff, from the workload of high-ranking government employees – seven days a week, 364 days a year – to the changes in weather and seasons with the movement from one continent or hemisphere to another. I won’t question his knowledge of military information, as he knows more about the subject than I do. I will complain, however, about the antagonist calling Austria racist and France tolerant. That’s completely backward.

A problem with military fiction is that it tends to have superhuman Patton-like main characters, more like a comic book than reality. Griffin keeps Castillo real by having him overlook the obvious or make stupid mistakes – not so much as to make him laughable, but enough to get readers’ empathy.

Griffin is a lightning-fast writer, but what he writes is still thorough and well done. Not many authors have a paperback of book one and a hardback of book two printed in the same month. He either has incredible talent and know-how or an amazing editor – probably both.

Of course, no book is perfect, and singing praises isn’t nearly as fun as prodding the weak spots.

The first two chapters of “The Hostage” are from the antagonist’s point of view. Assuming one has read the first book, “By Order of the President,” it’s not a huge leap to figure out this is a bad guy. For those who haven’t, such as myself, it’s easy to be disgusted at the thought that this morally inept whiner is the protagonist.

Chapters one and two also have little bearing on the rest of the story until three-fourths of the way through. Throwing in seemingly random scenes distances the readers from the story. Readers will keep looking back and wondering what those scenes were for, if anything.

Griffin tends to give lengthy backstory each time a character is introduced. This slows the pace, which isn’t bad in itself, but it slows it to a crawl. This, combined with the rest of the story being fast-paced action, is a combination of two extremes, which is bad.

Fortunately, Griffin counters this by keeping the slow backstory at the beginning of chapters and putting the fast action at the end of the chapters. This strings readers along: They’ll put up with the slow to get to the fast. They’re too entrenched in the plot not to. The only problem with that device is using it before readers are pulled into the story, which happens with the early chapters.

The rising action doesn’t appear to begin until the fourth chapter. This, when most writers begin it in the first or second paragraph, is difficult to endorse. Chapter three is needed, but the rant about Che Guevara probably isn’t. Chapters one and two float aimlessly, and their hooks come at their end rather than their beginning – not the best choice of placement.

All in all, the good outweighs the bad – enough so that I’m giving “The Hostage” four stars. I’m still not a die-hard fan of military fiction, and I’m not going to spend my student loan on stocking my shelves with Tom Clancy books, but I will admit that “The Hostage” is far better than I thought it would be. The book is almost 500 pages long and doesn’t have page breaks, therefore, I suggest waiting until finals are done before cracking open this behemoth – but crack it you should.