The second Lachlan Fox is all about the control of information. It's James Phelan's second novel, Patriot Act, following up his debut action thriller Fox Hunt and the stakes are still sky high. Both books feature investigative journalist Lachlan Fox. Actually, to call Fox an investigative journalist is sugar coating things a little. The guy is a former navy operative with vast combat experience. He has been recruited by GSR (Global Syndicate of Reporters) who roam the planet tracking down the juiciest of news stories in the most dangerous of locations.

I opened with the teaser that the book is about the control of information. To be more specific it has to do with the UKUSA treaty that had been signed between the US, Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand which allows for the capability to intercept every spoken or written word that travels via telephone, fax, radio, microwave, satellite, fibre-optic transmission in the world. Information is power and those who don't have it, want it.

The French have been left out of the agreement which cuts off their access to information that they could use to their advantage. A rogue group of wealthy businessmen and women and politicians have hatched a plot that threatens worldwide security. Using a French intelligence officer the group targets the NSA-controlled ECHELON surveillance program which captures an astounding array of telecommunication transmissions. With access to this information, the European power brokers behind the plan believe they can take over their respective countries.

The key figure is a French intelligence officer, Major Christian Secher of the DGSE who is on the move around the world carrying out assassinations of key figures, planting thumb drives in super-computers after first breaching their high-security buildings and, finally, recruiting the one person who can get him access to an NSA computer.

Lachlan Fox comes into the picture as the biggest threat to uncovering not only the Frenchman's identity but also his ultimate goal. To make matters worse, he befriends the Frenchman's girlfriend and for that he must die.

All the time we are racing towards an international incident of momentous proportions as a French submarine with nuclear capabilities is detected closing in on the shores of New York City.

In the tradition of action thriller books where megalomaniac rich bastards make their play for world dominance, this is a balls-out no holds barred slugfest in which little annoyances such as the law rarely enter the equation. It's the sort of book that is best enjoyed if you ease your stranglehold on the requirement for believability so that you don't question the minor details (such as the strange absence of bystanders in many of the usually heavily populated locations).

Instead, embrace the fact that you're in for a story in which coldly efficient killers are on the loose, a series of searingly close calls are more than likely going to take place and that you're headed for a scenario in which only one man can save the day. No real surprises in any of that, it's the nature of this kind of book, it all depends on how convincingly the author can present this situation and James Phelan does it with an easy crispness. He also manages to avoid the trap of turning Fox into an infallible hero who stinks of corniness by giving him a range of faults that gives him an everyday air that makes it possible to identify with him.

There's no doubt about it, this is an express-paced book that effortlessly switches from country to country and from zealous insanity being hatched in France in the form of a world domination plan to the more level-headed overworked Australian newcomer living and working out of New York City. With only the briefest of introductions to give us the necessary background, the fun begins.

This is a frenetic story of punch and counter-punch that stretches from New York City to New Zealand and Washington DC to Greenland. It's Clive Cussler on steroids and the kind of book that simply flashes by at warp speed.