The novel “The Washington Ultimatum” by Lee Gimenez was published for the first time in 2013. It’s part of the J.T. Ryan series.
When a dirty bomb explodes in Honolulu, Hawaii, causing thousands of deaths, the FBI’s top priority is finding the perpetrators. FBI Assistant Director Erin Welch hires J.T. Ryan, a private investigator with a past in Special Forces who has experience in dealing with criminals of all kinds and can operate unofficially anywhere.
Angel Stone is an ex-CIA agent with a grudge against her government. Forcing them to give her a lot of money would make a handsome payback, so she worked with other people interested in striking at the USA or just in good money to build dirty bombs. After the Honolulu attack, she demands a one billion dollar payment to stop her attacks. Can J.T. Ryan find her and her accomplices and stop them in time?
“The Washington Ultimatum” is a thriller with a plot marked by a remarkable fantasy that at the same time gives an impression of realism. It was published in 2013 when even the youngest readers of this novel remembered the 9/11 attack, and that certainly contributed to the emotional response from those readers.
Lee Gimenez wrote a high-stakes story that begins with the triggering of a so-called dirty bomb, with conventional explosives that scatter radioactive materials across a large area, in Honolulu. A beginning with thousands of victims and a contaminated area immediately gives an idea of what the consequences of terrorist attacks could be and marks a very fast pace.
Lee Gimenez’s choice is to start putting the cards on the table about the perpetrators of the attack right from the start. To do so, he tells part of the story from Angel Stone’s point of view. The author slowly reveals the reasons that transformed her from a CIA agent into a terrorist, her network of accomplices, and the tricks she learned in the CIA and used to prepare her attacks without being discovered.
J.T. Ryan has experience working with terrorists and criminals as both a Special Forces officer and a private investigator. He’s assigned to help the FBI because for him the end justifies the means and he gets results without what he considers bureaucratic obstacles. If you don’t like stories in which morality has many shades of gray and slippery slopes, honestly, this novel is not for you. The author doesn’t delve much into this side of the characters’ psychology and focuses on the emotions and reactions associated with the attacks.
“The Washington Ultimatum” is above all an action-based novel with a very fast pace. Just over 300 pages tell of many events in which the protagonists act in different parts of the world. The no-frills style of storytelling helps the reader to get engaged in the story. It’s a style that brings it closer to a screenplay making it practically ready for a movie adaptation.
“The Washington Ultimatum” is a novel well suited to fans of action-packed thrillers, who may appreciate the high stakes and continuous sense of danger, not just for the protagonist. It’s part of the J.T. Ryan series but tells a fully self-contained story with a proper ending, so you can read it and then decide if and when you want to continue with the novels in the series Lee Gimenez wrote in the following years. It’s available on Amazon USA, UK, and Canada.
