Richard Clarke's Fiction

    I received a copy of Richard A Clarke's Sting of the Drone from the publisher, with a request to write a review (I had previously reviewed another of their titles, which I loved).

   I had read his non-fiction book, Against All Enemies, and enjoyed it.  I was curious how his style would transition to fiction.
   I truly enjoyed the premise of Sting of the Drone, essentially a debate on whether or not America should use drones to kill. It was interesting picturing the pilots far away sending the drones to do their work, but the philosophical debate didn't go beyond, "it is wrong to kill without a trial or even much evidence" versus "our pilots won't die if we send in unmanned drones"  He brings in a couple of senators opposed to drones, but for the most part plays up the need to use them.  His characters are somewhat typical for thrillers, but I do have to hand it to him, the plot moved along quickly and was very exciting.  A potential terrorist threat might take place at Christmas, and those piloting the drones need to prevent that from happening.
   Despite his rather weak portrayal of the philosophical issues, the question of drone use did make me ponder while I was reading, and kept me reading to the end.  The parts I could have lived without were the sex chats two of the characters had; I always find sex thrown into thrillers somewhat tired and cliched, but in his case even more so, because I unfortunately pictured him saying them versus the character he had written.
   The issues raised that I found most interesting dealt with who is at fault when innocent children are placed in harm's way by the terrorists, who know a drone will be sent to kill.  Us, for sending the drones into kill without an arrest or trial, or the terrorists for putting the children there?  The character that felt the drone pilots had no role and shouldn't feel guilty, worries me still...as it seems all too easy for us to rationalize policies and the resulting tragedies with a blithe, "we didn't put the kids there"
   This might be a fun book for a book club to read, to start a discussion on our drone policy...and then perhaps the group could move onto the Constitution, and continue that discussion.