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The Bowin Novels #3
The Anaïs Assignment
In the third Bowin novel, a team of kidnappers takes Diego Mendoza, the son of the Spanish Ambassador, from the steps of an exclusive private high school in Bethesda, Maryland in a daring daylight operation. An unforeseen circumstance complicates the snatch. The presence of Diego’s classmate Anaïs Bowin leads to an on the spot decision to try to kidnap Anaïs too. Based on the political nature of their ransom demands, the kidnappers and all who are involved in the conspiracy earn themselves a place on the US Government’s list of “specially designated global terrorists” and come under a Presidential directive to capture or kill. When the terrorists spirit Diego out of the country they earn the attention of the black ops “Agency” and its crack team of Alice and Tom Bowin, Anaïs’s parents. They will have the cooperation of the FBI and the police and security forces of four countries. Despite the complications, justice will be swift, sure and savage, but who will survive the hunt and who will die?
309 pages, Paperback
First published July 19, 2012
18 people want to read
About the author
Lee Holz
17 books102 followersLee Holz is a novelist, poet, lawyer and opera fan and eclectic reader. He lived in Europe for many years, and his travels took him to Australia and more than thirty other countries on five continents.
Lee lives on an island with his feline buddy "far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife."
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Lee.Holz.Far...
Lee lives on an island with his feline buddy "far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife."
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Lee.Holz.Far...
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
July 24, 2013
After two years since reading author Lee Holz' "The Honeymoon Assignment," centering on exploits of Special Ops operatives Tom and Alice Bowin, I decided to pick up this other (chronologically later) installment in the thriller series.
As an overview, I continue to be impressed with Holz's excellent vocabulary and impeccable sentence structures. As a linguist he is adept--a cut above most other authors. I do like language well painted, and find Holz's grammatical skills on par with the best. I'm also very appreciative of (and occasionally caught off guard by) his timing, and the way he can deftly shift gears from the benign to the dire.
In his Bowin stories, it's often the little things that grab you, the things he seems to know--that someone attempting to blackmail an official for classified info is not likely to use a public kidnapping for leverage, or the precise law enforcement protocols surrounding specific types of governmental breach. One almost gets the feeling Holz has a secret background in the global-back-alley dealings of investigation and enforcement. He builds into his plots details like the standard debriefing protocol after encounters that involve the firing of live rounds, or agents' frequent desire to fly commercial so as to establish a cover, and their later need to reclaim sidearms from a discrete airline contact when they disembark the plane. Or the difference between legal and moral certainty when an agent must sanction a target. Holz is also unique in that he explores such concepts as the ethical/political issues of head-of-state-sanctioned killings and the psychological toll that an operation can take on the "tip of the spear" agents who perform such executions.
Regarding Holz's dual protagonists, Tom and Alice Bowin are different from other special forces action heroes we read about or see on the screen: Their creator does not accentuate their tendencies to deviate from standard procedure. Rather, these characters' individuality is defined more by their personal relationships than by some cliche "rebel" nature. Their behavior on missions remains precise per training and experience. The events are far more believable as a result.
Story-wise, I found "The Anais Assignment" very much a departure from my expectations, although my original expectations are fed by it. But it was more--for one thing, it included a very, very unabashed look at highly personal facets of some of the characters. Since I tend to be an excessively "abashed" reader, parts of this book differed substantially from my standard fare. That's fine; it wasn't aimed at me or my peculiar comfort zone limits, and I'd be a pretty egotistical reviewer to fault it for that. It did lure me somewhat into waters of human emotion in which I don't normally swim, but since so many other readers are far more progressive than I, this aspect of the book has to be considered a unique plus. In painting his characters, Holz clearly made conscious decisions to delve into some highly personal realms of human interaction and human emotion. He leveraged those decisions with considerable skill. This book explores aspects of humanity with incredible frankness--frankness I've never been quite brave enough to approach in my own work.
The plot began in gripping Holz-esque style, but back-tracked a bit into an elaborate portraiture of persons and prior events. This is a classic story structure that never goes out of style, and again Holz uses it to excellent effect. At some point it comes back around to the dire events, and, if I was forced to pick only one aspect of his work, here is where Holz may shine best. The story gets tense and yet somehow remains systematic and practical, perhaps like the log file of a covert operation would tell it. It proceeds in real time through complication toward climax and conclusion. Again, loose ends are tied off, one after another, like a covert military operation and a Holz novel tend to do.
Holz is also very good at, and sometimes willing to, drop a major bomb on a reader. He does it infrequently, in a matter-of-fact manner that's in line with harsh realism, and the impact of such understatement can be like a hammer. When you don't think he has it in him, best to take care. It lends a powerful moment in an already taut story. Also, he has the excellent sense to avoid forcing the reader to live through certain things as they happened, opting instead to describe the aftermath. (Few can handle "witnessing" some kinds of things, myself included). Very good decisions on this author's part, in my opinion.
This book has the courage to explore, in broad daylight, both highly personal human fascinations and serious moral questions. Especially readers who appreciate real frankness in the emotional makeup of their characters, and those who thrill to sinister but still highly believable plots, should find "The Anais Assignment" to be rich and riveting.
- Michael Vorhis
As an overview, I continue to be impressed with Holz's excellent vocabulary and impeccable sentence structures. As a linguist he is adept--a cut above most other authors. I do like language well painted, and find Holz's grammatical skills on par with the best. I'm also very appreciative of (and occasionally caught off guard by) his timing, and the way he can deftly shift gears from the benign to the dire.
In his Bowin stories, it's often the little things that grab you, the things he seems to know--that someone attempting to blackmail an official for classified info is not likely to use a public kidnapping for leverage, or the precise law enforcement protocols surrounding specific types of governmental breach. One almost gets the feeling Holz has a secret background in the global-back-alley dealings of investigation and enforcement. He builds into his plots details like the standard debriefing protocol after encounters that involve the firing of live rounds, or agents' frequent desire to fly commercial so as to establish a cover, and their later need to reclaim sidearms from a discrete airline contact when they disembark the plane. Or the difference between legal and moral certainty when an agent must sanction a target. Holz is also unique in that he explores such concepts as the ethical/political issues of head-of-state-sanctioned killings and the psychological toll that an operation can take on the "tip of the spear" agents who perform such executions.
Regarding Holz's dual protagonists, Tom and Alice Bowin are different from other special forces action heroes we read about or see on the screen: Their creator does not accentuate their tendencies to deviate from standard procedure. Rather, these characters' individuality is defined more by their personal relationships than by some cliche "rebel" nature. Their behavior on missions remains precise per training and experience. The events are far more believable as a result.
Story-wise, I found "The Anais Assignment" very much a departure from my expectations, although my original expectations are fed by it. But it was more--for one thing, it included a very, very unabashed look at highly personal facets of some of the characters. Since I tend to be an excessively "abashed" reader, parts of this book differed substantially from my standard fare. That's fine; it wasn't aimed at me or my peculiar comfort zone limits, and I'd be a pretty egotistical reviewer to fault it for that. It did lure me somewhat into waters of human emotion in which I don't normally swim, but since so many other readers are far more progressive than I, this aspect of the book has to be considered a unique plus. In painting his characters, Holz clearly made conscious decisions to delve into some highly personal realms of human interaction and human emotion. He leveraged those decisions with considerable skill. This book explores aspects of humanity with incredible frankness--frankness I've never been quite brave enough to approach in my own work.
The plot began in gripping Holz-esque style, but back-tracked a bit into an elaborate portraiture of persons and prior events. This is a classic story structure that never goes out of style, and again Holz uses it to excellent effect. At some point it comes back around to the dire events, and, if I was forced to pick only one aspect of his work, here is where Holz may shine best. The story gets tense and yet somehow remains systematic and practical, perhaps like the log file of a covert operation would tell it. It proceeds in real time through complication toward climax and conclusion. Again, loose ends are tied off, one after another, like a covert military operation and a Holz novel tend to do.
Holz is also very good at, and sometimes willing to, drop a major bomb on a reader. He does it infrequently, in a matter-of-fact manner that's in line with harsh realism, and the impact of such understatement can be like a hammer. When you don't think he has it in him, best to take care. It lends a powerful moment in an already taut story. Also, he has the excellent sense to avoid forcing the reader to live through certain things as they happened, opting instead to describe the aftermath. (Few can handle "witnessing" some kinds of things, myself included). Very good decisions on this author's part, in my opinion.
This book has the courage to explore, in broad daylight, both highly personal human fascinations and serious moral questions. Especially readers who appreciate real frankness in the emotional makeup of their characters, and those who thrill to sinister but still highly believable plots, should find "The Anais Assignment" to be rich and riveting.
- Michael Vorhis
Displaying 1 of 1 review