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Alexander Hawke #3
Pirate
Aboard the Star of Shanghai in the south of France, an American spy is held captive. He possesses vital, explosive intelligence linking two nations and one horrifying plot. If he is not rescued, he faces certain torture and inevitable death. Nearby, in a seaside hotel, a man still haunted by the loss of his wife two years earlier finds comfort in the arms of a beautiful Chinese actress—but is she to be trusted? So begins Pirate, an electrifying thriller marking the return of international counterterrorist Alex Hawke.
In Paris, a ruthless descendant of Napoleon has risen to power, hell-bent on restoring France’s former glory. His fiery ambitions are cynically stoked by a coterie of cold-blooded Mandarins, plotting behind the gates of Beijing’s Forbidden City. Cloaked in secrecy, this unholy alliance devises a twisted global plan, backed by China’s growing nuclear arsenal, that will send America and the world to the brink of a gut-wrenching showdown.
With the aid of his old friend and former Navy SEAL, Stokely Jones, Hawke sets out to investigate the deadly connections that bind the French-Chinese axis. Together, they discover that a powerful German industrialist may hold the key, somewhere inside the walls of his Bavarian mountain lair. Meanwhile, clues to an old and gruesome murder in Paris lead to New York City, where horrifying evidence could finally bring a madman to his knees. In the end, as American and British forces prepare to defend a sovereign and oil-rich Gulf nation against unwilling occupation, the terror is all too real. The world is once more balanced on the knife-edge of a full-blown nuclear confrontation.
Hawke must once more prepare to hurl himself deep into the nightmare visions of madmen. He must garner every ounce of strength, courage, and useful pain from his past. He must defeat this enemy or else forfeit the lives of untold thousands, including his own, to an axis of evil no historian could have ever predicted.
In Paris, a ruthless descendant of Napoleon has risen to power, hell-bent on restoring France’s former glory. His fiery ambitions are cynically stoked by a coterie of cold-blooded Mandarins, plotting behind the gates of Beijing’s Forbidden City. Cloaked in secrecy, this unholy alliance devises a twisted global plan, backed by China’s growing nuclear arsenal, that will send America and the world to the brink of a gut-wrenching showdown.
With the aid of his old friend and former Navy SEAL, Stokely Jones, Hawke sets out to investigate the deadly connections that bind the French-Chinese axis. Together, they discover that a powerful German industrialist may hold the key, somewhere inside the walls of his Bavarian mountain lair. Meanwhile, clues to an old and gruesome murder in Paris lead to New York City, where horrifying evidence could finally bring a madman to his knees. In the end, as American and British forces prepare to defend a sovereign and oil-rich Gulf nation against unwilling occupation, the terror is all too real. The world is once more balanced on the knife-edge of a full-blown nuclear confrontation.
Hawke must once more prepare to hurl himself deep into the nightmare visions of madmen. He must garner every ounce of strength, courage, and useful pain from his past. He must defeat this enemy or else forfeit the lives of untold thousands, including his own, to an axis of evil no historian could have ever predicted.
640 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 16, 2005
290 people are currently reading
1590 people want to read
About the author
Ted Bell
51 books858 followersTed Bell was the author of 12 consecutive New York Times best sellers and a former advertising executive. He began his advertising career in the 1970’s as a junior copywriter at Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDB), New York. At the age of 25, he sold his first screenplay to Hollywood, as well as became the youngest vice-president in the storied history of DDB. He then joined Leo Burnett Co., Chicago, as a creative director and four years later, he was named President, Chicago Creative Officer where he was credited with developing numerous innovative and award-winning advertising campaigns. In 1982, Bell joined Young & Rubicam, London, and in 1991 he became the Vice Chairman and Worldwide Creative Director. Ted won every award the advertising industry offers, including numerous Clios and Cannes Gold Lions, and while at Young & Rubicam, the Grand Prix at the Cannes Festival. In 2001, Ted retired to write full time. He has 10 New York Times Bestsellers to his credit: The Alex Hawke series of spy thrillers published by HarperCollins and the young adult targeted time travel adventure series, Nick of Time and The Time Pirate published by St. Martins Press.
A native Floridian, Bell graduated from Randolph-Macon College in Virginia and was a former member of the college’s Board of Trustees. He held an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from Kendall College in Michigan. Bell was also an Adjunct Professor of English Literature at Florida Southern College in Lakeland, Florida. He was a member of the Defense Orientation Conference Association (DOCA), a program run by the Department of Defense in support of America’s military. He served on the Advisory Board at George Washington’s Home at Mount Vernon, a group chaired by former Secretary of the Army, Togo West. He also served for a time as an advisor to the Undersecretary for Domestic Relations at the U.S. Department of State.
For the 2011-2012 Academic Year, Sir Richard Dearlove, Former Chief of MI6, British Intelligence, sponsored Ted to become a Visiting Scholar at Cambridge University (UK). In addition, he was named Writer-in-Residence at Sydney-Sussex College, Cambridge and studied at the University’s Department of Political Science and International Studies (POLIS) under the tutelage of Sir Dearlove, who was the Master of Pembroke College.
In May 2018, Ted published OVERKILL, the 10th book in the popular Alex Hawke spy thriller series.
In January 2019, Ted and Jon Adler of Jon Adler Films formed El Dorado Entertainment, a feature film and television production company based in New York.
In July 2019, Ted signed a two-book deal with Random House.
In July 2020, the 11th Alex Hawke thriller, DRAGONFIRE, was published.
On December 7, 2021, the 12th Alex Hawke thriller, SEA HAWKE was published.
Ted appeared on numerous television and radio programs and was a featured speaker at associations, clubs, libraries and organizations across the country.
Ted traveled the world and lived in Italy, London, France, Palm Beach, New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Maine. He last lived in a beloved 19th century farmhouse in Connecticut.
A native Floridian, Bell graduated from Randolph-Macon College in Virginia and was a former member of the college’s Board of Trustees. He held an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from Kendall College in Michigan. Bell was also an Adjunct Professor of English Literature at Florida Southern College in Lakeland, Florida. He was a member of the Defense Orientation Conference Association (DOCA), a program run by the Department of Defense in support of America’s military. He served on the Advisory Board at George Washington’s Home at Mount Vernon, a group chaired by former Secretary of the Army, Togo West. He also served for a time as an advisor to the Undersecretary for Domestic Relations at the U.S. Department of State.
For the 2011-2012 Academic Year, Sir Richard Dearlove, Former Chief of MI6, British Intelligence, sponsored Ted to become a Visiting Scholar at Cambridge University (UK). In addition, he was named Writer-in-Residence at Sydney-Sussex College, Cambridge and studied at the University’s Department of Political Science and International Studies (POLIS) under the tutelage of Sir Dearlove, who was the Master of Pembroke College.
In May 2018, Ted published OVERKILL, the 10th book in the popular Alex Hawke spy thriller series.
In January 2019, Ted and Jon Adler of Jon Adler Films formed El Dorado Entertainment, a feature film and television production company based in New York.
In July 2019, Ted signed a two-book deal with Random House.
In July 2020, the 11th Alex Hawke thriller, DRAGONFIRE, was published.
On December 7, 2021, the 12th Alex Hawke thriller, SEA HAWKE was published.
Ted appeared on numerous television and radio programs and was a featured speaker at associations, clubs, libraries and organizations across the country.
Ted traveled the world and lived in Italy, London, France, Palm Beach, New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Maine. He last lived in a beloved 19th century farmhouse in Connecticut.
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July 17, 2008There is dumb, and then there is industrial strength dumb. I no longer know precisely how I came about getting my hands on Ted Bell’s massively disappointing and offensive novel Pirate. The library sent me an email and told me it had come in, so I drove there to pick it up. With its skull & cross bones cover, I had high hopes. Say what you will about them, I think the Johnny Depp pirate films of recent years are ripping good fun, are smarter than they’re given credit for, and feature a mind-bogglingly complex plot. So, pirates are definitely popular fare lately.
Why this particular book, the third in Bell’s series featuring his Batman meets James Bond hero Lord Alex Hawke, is named Pirate I can only guess at. Is there any piracy? No. Anything one might associate with piracy? Well, there’s some ships, but then Titanic had ships too. In fact, only two reasons come to mind why this book might be titled Pirate, and it’s really only one reason. The Chinese spy organization refer to Lord Hawke as “Pirate” in their codes. And why do they do that? Because he owns a ship.
No, actually, the real reason they do it is because pirates are clearly hot in the market these days, and there is nothing Bell’s book does more than position itself toward a certain market. In and of itself, there is nothing wrong with writing for a niche market, but in Bell’s style and in his plotting he so aggressively angles his way toward his niche that it comes off as just another marketing stunt. If this third in the series is any indicator, the other books are just as bad.
I don’t want to suggest that merely because a man was once the Vice-Chairman of the Board and World-Wide Creative Director for the Young & Rubicam advertising agency he couldn’t write a decent novel, but there it is. This globe trotting novel tries to conjure up the pre-p.c. devil may care attitudes of Ian Fleming and the like, but all it comes up with stale, odious stereotypes.
Throughout this book a kind of advertising shorthand of plot and character contrivance exists, where Asians are inscrutable, the French untrustworthy, the Germans stern Teutonic Nazi sympathizers, Americans blustery but they get the job done, and the English stable, cool cucumbers. Any Chinese male is referred to as a “Chinaman” regardless of which character is speaking (even our omniscient narrator) which points to authorial attitude (or choice) rather than character prejudice.
The book starts off with a kind of reactionary spy from the CIA, Harry Brock, engaged in some 007 action. While this opening scene no doubt applies more directly to the plot than Bond films’ opening scenes, the book immediately backtracks to lay out some scenes and some more of the story. While ye olde in media res has a distinguished pedigree, there is something corny and overdone about these action sequences that open any number of spy books and films.
Chapter One, after this smash-bang-crash episode, introduces us to Lord Alex Hawke, a well-off supposed British privateer. He is your usual tortured hero, his wife shot down the year before on the church steps only minutes after their wedding, fulfilling the genre necessity for angst. Nevertheless, because the sex demands of this convention are stronger than human psychology, we meet rather quickly Chinese startlet named Jet. Where do we meet her? In Hawke’s bed, naturally. How this supposedly mourning older man picked up this woman and ended up bedding her is rather quickly glossed over, nor is it strictly necessary to know. Things just happen.
And, of course, how convenient that in a book featuring those “inscrutable” (Bell’s word) Chinese that Hawke should be romantically linked to a cosmopolitan Chinese starlet. We find out later that she is an agent for the Chinese spy agency and secret police. Tangled loyalties, no doubt, will provoke we readers to question where her interests lie. Apparently rather infamous for her employment, Jet is known for what she is by everyone save our man of mystery. How does that work? How could Captain Oblivion be so well trusted by the CIA that they use him with some frequency?
Didn’t I already answer a question like this above? There are no good answers to these Mack Truck sized plot holes. Things just happen.
For example, the crackpot action sequences don’t stop with the opening chapters, but we quickly are accompanying Lord Hawke as he swashbucklingly saves Harry Brick (or whatever his name is) from the Chinese, by smashing into their boat and throwing him over his shoulder. I kid not. Along the way we are given descriptions of Hawke noting his compatriot about to be killed by an AK-47 toting Chinese killer and in “a nanosecond less” than it would take for the death to happen, Hawke draws his pistol and puts three bullets into “the Chinaman.”
Well, why are the Chinese secret police kidnapping American CIA agents anyway? Hang on to your hats, because this one’s gonna knock ‘em off. The somewhat incredulous (except, I’m sure, to some types) set up of the novel is that France, realizing a shift in world power is in the making, decides to cozy up with Communist China in order to get in on the ground floor when China takes over the Middle East.
France, lead by a self-claimed descendant Napoleon (who comes to power through skillful political assassination and so on), doesn’t realize how it’s being used by China, while the Chinese, realpolitik to the core, need a Trojan Horse to get them into the business of seizing all that sweet rich crude. To this end, two means are contrived. One is to convince France to invade Oman. The other is to get a Nazi sympathizing German billionaire shipbuilder to make you four enormous ships which you will stockpile with nuclear devices. Dock these ships in major American ports and there’s no way the Yankees can stop you from sucking the wells dry.
All of this is fairly patently absurd, and Bell is sure to pile it even thicker. It’d be one thing if he did this tongue in cheek with a sense of humor, but that’s not his style. The ideas seem to roll off pretty straightforward as if a.) he thought his geopolitical plotting were cutting edge smart and b.) his super-duper hero were plausible if a little extreme.
Bell meshes this super hero plot with what’s supposed to be some kind of detective story, an old friend of Lord Hawke’s named Congreve whose investigating the British end of things. Congreve’s a detective who we’re supposed to take for part Sherlock Holmes (he’s even described as wearing a deer stalker hat) and part Hercule Poirot. This two-dimensional also regularly wears tweeds and smokes a briar-bowl pipe as he peruses his Conan Doyle first editions. He is also given to considering things “cracking good” and “jolly good” and remarking how things are “arse over tea kettle” and other such PBS 1970s Britishisms that ring hollow and false. Perhaps, I thought, he’d stalk the villain in the end down a fog-choked cobble stone street, the gaslights extinguished etc.
One of the unintentionally funnier bits with this detective comes when he is pondering all the effeminate types who surround him, all the milksop so-called men who crawl the earth. He then shifts gears immediately to think wistfully of his dead aunt’s Minto tea service that might be left him in her will and her sweet little cottage.
It’s simply more of the author’s cliched view of the world coming in to play here. I don’t know what you can say for a novel wherein not only the villains and the minor characters are stock pastiches but the main characters as well. Postmodernists have had fun tinkering with ideas like this, but Bell’s neither smart enough nor author enough to be that self-aware of what he’s doing.
What gets me about this is how predictable and silly it all is. For example, the villains are all deformed and ugly and misshapen as well as deranged. Hu Xu or whatever his name is, a psychotic hit man for the Chinese secret police, has a razor thin nose with vertical nostrils, a crooked spine, and a smaller than average size penis which gives him a greater sexual appetite. You see, a monster by profession, he is a monster in appearance (but he also has to be diminished, which is why we find out his package dimensions).
Part of what’s so silly about this is how we have come to learn of the banality of evil. How vicious monsters are vicious per se generally speaking professionally, but in their private lives they are often into model trains, opera, dog breeding, stamp collecting, and all other kinds of simple hobbies. But in books and films of this nature, evil men are evil 24/7 and the killer, Hu Xu not only kills and maims for pay, but he keeps a boat in the harbor where he chops people up in bits and pieces, rearranging them as sadistic art projects. Even Saddam, uber evil, wrote novels.
And all too often, authors like to resort to this one-dimensional evil, but they also like to flinch at their own creation. They’ll make these bloodthirsty fiends, but when the time comes to allow them on the stage, the lights always dim, the curtain falls a second ahead of the knife. It’s a kind of moral chickenshittedness. Have the courage of your pretend authorial convictions. If you want to deal in nightmares, stop pussyfooting around.
Bell’s novel however is just that. A cowardly dream of bravery. An adman’s fantasy about what makes a good novel. A few types splashed about liberally for the dum-dums, a plot so contrived of nonsense as to make Hollywood execs giddy, and enough racial offensiveness to aim for that angry white male demographic. It’s beyond pathetic and beyond bad. Someone slip Bell the Black Spot, pronto.
Why this particular book, the third in Bell’s series featuring his Batman meets James Bond hero Lord Alex Hawke, is named Pirate I can only guess at. Is there any piracy? No. Anything one might associate with piracy? Well, there’s some ships, but then Titanic had ships too. In fact, only two reasons come to mind why this book might be titled Pirate, and it’s really only one reason. The Chinese spy organization refer to Lord Hawke as “Pirate” in their codes. And why do they do that? Because he owns a ship.
No, actually, the real reason they do it is because pirates are clearly hot in the market these days, and there is nothing Bell’s book does more than position itself toward a certain market. In and of itself, there is nothing wrong with writing for a niche market, but in Bell’s style and in his plotting he so aggressively angles his way toward his niche that it comes off as just another marketing stunt. If this third in the series is any indicator, the other books are just as bad.
I don’t want to suggest that merely because a man was once the Vice-Chairman of the Board and World-Wide Creative Director for the Young & Rubicam advertising agency he couldn’t write a decent novel, but there it is. This globe trotting novel tries to conjure up the pre-p.c. devil may care attitudes of Ian Fleming and the like, but all it comes up with stale, odious stereotypes.
Throughout this book a kind of advertising shorthand of plot and character contrivance exists, where Asians are inscrutable, the French untrustworthy, the Germans stern Teutonic Nazi sympathizers, Americans blustery but they get the job done, and the English stable, cool cucumbers. Any Chinese male is referred to as a “Chinaman” regardless of which character is speaking (even our omniscient narrator) which points to authorial attitude (or choice) rather than character prejudice.
The book starts off with a kind of reactionary spy from the CIA, Harry Brock, engaged in some 007 action. While this opening scene no doubt applies more directly to the plot than Bond films’ opening scenes, the book immediately backtracks to lay out some scenes and some more of the story. While ye olde in media res has a distinguished pedigree, there is something corny and overdone about these action sequences that open any number of spy books and films.
Chapter One, after this smash-bang-crash episode, introduces us to Lord Alex Hawke, a well-off supposed British privateer. He is your usual tortured hero, his wife shot down the year before on the church steps only minutes after their wedding, fulfilling the genre necessity for angst. Nevertheless, because the sex demands of this convention are stronger than human psychology, we meet rather quickly Chinese startlet named Jet. Where do we meet her? In Hawke’s bed, naturally. How this supposedly mourning older man picked up this woman and ended up bedding her is rather quickly glossed over, nor is it strictly necessary to know. Things just happen.
And, of course, how convenient that in a book featuring those “inscrutable” (Bell’s word) Chinese that Hawke should be romantically linked to a cosmopolitan Chinese starlet. We find out later that she is an agent for the Chinese spy agency and secret police. Tangled loyalties, no doubt, will provoke we readers to question where her interests lie. Apparently rather infamous for her employment, Jet is known for what she is by everyone save our man of mystery. How does that work? How could Captain Oblivion be so well trusted by the CIA that they use him with some frequency?
Didn’t I already answer a question like this above? There are no good answers to these Mack Truck sized plot holes. Things just happen.
For example, the crackpot action sequences don’t stop with the opening chapters, but we quickly are accompanying Lord Hawke as he swashbucklingly saves Harry Brick (or whatever his name is) from the Chinese, by smashing into their boat and throwing him over his shoulder. I kid not. Along the way we are given descriptions of Hawke noting his compatriot about to be killed by an AK-47 toting Chinese killer and in “a nanosecond less” than it would take for the death to happen, Hawke draws his pistol and puts three bullets into “the Chinaman.”
Well, why are the Chinese secret police kidnapping American CIA agents anyway? Hang on to your hats, because this one’s gonna knock ‘em off. The somewhat incredulous (except, I’m sure, to some types) set up of the novel is that France, realizing a shift in world power is in the making, decides to cozy up with Communist China in order to get in on the ground floor when China takes over the Middle East.
France, lead by a self-claimed descendant Napoleon (who comes to power through skillful political assassination and so on), doesn’t realize how it’s being used by China, while the Chinese, realpolitik to the core, need a Trojan Horse to get them into the business of seizing all that sweet rich crude. To this end, two means are contrived. One is to convince France to invade Oman. The other is to get a Nazi sympathizing German billionaire shipbuilder to make you four enormous ships which you will stockpile with nuclear devices. Dock these ships in major American ports and there’s no way the Yankees can stop you from sucking the wells dry.
All of this is fairly patently absurd, and Bell is sure to pile it even thicker. It’d be one thing if he did this tongue in cheek with a sense of humor, but that’s not his style. The ideas seem to roll off pretty straightforward as if a.) he thought his geopolitical plotting were cutting edge smart and b.) his super-duper hero were plausible if a little extreme.
Bell meshes this super hero plot with what’s supposed to be some kind of detective story, an old friend of Lord Hawke’s named Congreve whose investigating the British end of things. Congreve’s a detective who we’re supposed to take for part Sherlock Holmes (he’s even described as wearing a deer stalker hat) and part Hercule Poirot. This two-dimensional also regularly wears tweeds and smokes a briar-bowl pipe as he peruses his Conan Doyle first editions. He is also given to considering things “cracking good” and “jolly good” and remarking how things are “arse over tea kettle” and other such PBS 1970s Britishisms that ring hollow and false. Perhaps, I thought, he’d stalk the villain in the end down a fog-choked cobble stone street, the gaslights extinguished etc.
One of the unintentionally funnier bits with this detective comes when he is pondering all the effeminate types who surround him, all the milksop so-called men who crawl the earth. He then shifts gears immediately to think wistfully of his dead aunt’s Minto tea service that might be left him in her will and her sweet little cottage.
It’s simply more of the author’s cliched view of the world coming in to play here. I don’t know what you can say for a novel wherein not only the villains and the minor characters are stock pastiches but the main characters as well. Postmodernists have had fun tinkering with ideas like this, but Bell’s neither smart enough nor author enough to be that self-aware of what he’s doing.
What gets me about this is how predictable and silly it all is. For example, the villains are all deformed and ugly and misshapen as well as deranged. Hu Xu or whatever his name is, a psychotic hit man for the Chinese secret police, has a razor thin nose with vertical nostrils, a crooked spine, and a smaller than average size penis which gives him a greater sexual appetite. You see, a monster by profession, he is a monster in appearance (but he also has to be diminished, which is why we find out his package dimensions).
Part of what’s so silly about this is how we have come to learn of the banality of evil. How vicious monsters are vicious per se generally speaking professionally, but in their private lives they are often into model trains, opera, dog breeding, stamp collecting, and all other kinds of simple hobbies. But in books and films of this nature, evil men are evil 24/7 and the killer, Hu Xu not only kills and maims for pay, but he keeps a boat in the harbor where he chops people up in bits and pieces, rearranging them as sadistic art projects. Even Saddam, uber evil, wrote novels.
And all too often, authors like to resort to this one-dimensional evil, but they also like to flinch at their own creation. They’ll make these bloodthirsty fiends, but when the time comes to allow them on the stage, the lights always dim, the curtain falls a second ahead of the knife. It’s a kind of moral chickenshittedness. Have the courage of your pretend authorial convictions. If you want to deal in nightmares, stop pussyfooting around.
Bell’s novel however is just that. A cowardly dream of bravery. An adman’s fantasy about what makes a good novel. A few types splashed about liberally for the dum-dums, a plot so contrived of nonsense as to make Hollywood execs giddy, and enough racial offensiveness to aim for that angry white male demographic. It’s beyond pathetic and beyond bad. Someone slip Bell the Black Spot, pronto.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 6, 2018
Superman Alex Hawke takes on a Chinese/French consortium. Exciting, but Hawke is too good to be true, even for this genre.
September 27, 2020
Lots of action and very Bond like. Hawke is always good fun.
March 7, 2018
Of the many authors in the 'thriller & action adventure' genre, Ted Bell appears to be the best fit if you're looking for a James Bond type story. This book has all the prerequisites, evil megalomaniac billionaires, hostile foreign powers, likable heroes, gadgets, guns and exotic locations.
A descendant of Napoleon Bonaparte is trying to take over France and Oman with the help of the red Chinese. He uses the lure of unlimited oil resources to get the Chinese working on his side. It's up to Alexander Hawke and his rag tag band of heroes to put a stop to this threat.
As with the other books it's full of unbelievable plots and heroic acts, just like a James Bond movie. If your looking for that type of escapism then this is a good series. 3.5 stars, not quite 4 for this installment.
A descendant of Napoleon Bonaparte is trying to take over France and Oman with the help of the red Chinese. He uses the lure of unlimited oil resources to get the Chinese working on his side. It's up to Alexander Hawke and his rag tag band of heroes to put a stop to this threat.
As with the other books it's full of unbelievable plots and heroic acts, just like a James Bond movie. If your looking for that type of escapism then this is a good series. 3.5 stars, not quite 4 for this installment.
June 30, 2014
This was my first and last Ted Bell Book. I have not encountered such a supposed NYT "best selling" author of this caliber (D-league)
for so long I've forgotten when.
If I consider all the wonderful authors one can read,
still alive, I am simply awe-struck that this gentleman
has been so prolific - and actually gotten so many to buy his
wares.
Truly, this gentleman is an inspiration to all whose native language is English! If Mr Bell can write best-sellers, than so can many millions of poor humanities students, who labored so long over weekly long papers on long Victorian novels for 10-week quarters. And, did do in the days before Political Correctness, when one had to actually write well. (At least as an undergraduate!).
I am convinced that ANY freshman English major, in any University, who has passed the "dumbbell" class, as we called it, could easily outshine "Pirate", in an academic quarter or less.
N.B., There are at least two debut novels I have seen this year (2014)
that are better than any storytelling Mr Bell will ever achieve. ("The Golem And The Jinni" and "Life Ain't Kind").
for so long I've forgotten when.
If I consider all the wonderful authors one can read,
still alive, I am simply awe-struck that this gentleman
has been so prolific - and actually gotten so many to buy his
wares.
Truly, this gentleman is an inspiration to all whose native language is English! If Mr Bell can write best-sellers, than so can many millions of poor humanities students, who labored so long over weekly long papers on long Victorian novels for 10-week quarters. And, did do in the days before Political Correctness, when one had to actually write well. (At least as an undergraduate!).
I am convinced that ANY freshman English major, in any University, who has passed the "dumbbell" class, as we called it, could easily outshine "Pirate", in an academic quarter or less.
N.B., There are at least two debut novels I have seen this year (2014)
that are better than any storytelling Mr Bell will ever achieve. ("The Golem And The Jinni" and "Life Ain't Kind").
March 2, 2015
I gave this book 5 out of 5 stars because it was super action packed, never boring, and the characters are very likable. Ted Bell develops a few characters quite well throughout the story. It might be a little much having so many different characters, but he balances them out by having different villains throughout the book. I would recommend this book to either gender. Men might like this book slightly more, but if one is looking for a good action filled book, this is perfect. I would recommend this book to someone ages 12 and up because this book has some content in it and it helps to be more educated about history when reading this.
January 13, 2015
This book was okay but I found the storyline had gone from semi-realistic fiction to absurd fiction. I find it a little distracting to read a book and wonder why a character is making such utterly retarded choices when they are apparently an elite private spy/cop/etc.
Overall the writing was alright, but the storyline and circumstances within the plot line had me putting the book down regularly to go and do other things.
Will probably be the third & last Ted Bell book I read.
Overall the writing was alright, but the storyline and circumstances within the plot line had me putting the book down regularly to go and do other things.
Will probably be the third & last Ted Bell book I read.
January 23, 2015
Unlike Bell's prior novel, 'Assassin', I found 'Pirate' to be a novel brim-full of ... an inconceivable plot, ridiculousness of the highest order, buffoonish 'comic-book' characters, and chest-beating ignoramuses. While, foolishly perhaps, I carried on relentlessly to the dire end - all 514 yawning pages - it was at the foot of page 277, the beginning of Chapter 35, that the novel pre-ordained my review, when one sentence said it all ... ... ... "Give me a frigging break with this shit."
January 17, 2008
I read 100 pages and thought it was crap. So I passed it along to my sister and she really liked it. Go figure. I personally couldn't get into the story due to the crap writing. But that could just be me.
December 7, 2014
After listening to the abridged audio, I would strongly recommend the unabridged version as much important information is left out. Ted Bell is such a terrific writer that serious injustices are done shrinking his work. Nonetheless, 7 of 10 stars. 8 of 10 stars unabridged
February 3, 2024
FEBRUARY 2024 - James Bond meets Sherlock Holmes meets Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon meets Buffalo Bill from The Silence of the Lambs. What a crazy ride this was. With characters like Hawke, Ambrose Congreve, Stokely (my favorite), Brick, and Brock, what can go wrong? I must admit, though, spy books aren’t my favorite. This took me a bit to get into simply because there was an overload of information about China and Germany and France. But it was definitely action-packed and better than the James Bond book I read, Casino Royale.
July 5, 2021
These stories remind me of James Bond, but in a more modern time. Bad guys are larger than life and Hawke always wins out in the end.....
March 31, 2022
Ian Fleming and Tom Clancy can rest easy. From inscrutable Chinese masterminds to Nazi grottos filled with ultimate weapons ... this is a cliché ridden disaster from one end to the other. At first you think that the characters are putting people on but you soon discover that the plot has been taken straight from a pretty crappy 1930's comic book. The guy can actually write. There is some good dialogue in there and some likeable characters. The problem is they are paper thin and don't really have a believable playground.
August 11, 2016
China and France have formed a deadly alliance – they are after the oil in Oman and from there – the world!
On the side of the good guys: intrepid Counter-Terrorist freelancer, British Intelligence Officer and all round English Pukka good chap, Lord Alex Hawke and his band of International merry men including man-mountain American Stokely Jones. Harry Brock, American agent, rescued by Hawke from the clutches of Chinese agents on a boat in the South of France is now part of the team. Legendary New Scotland Yard criminalist Ambrose Congreve needs to prove who murdered French Foreign Minister Luca Bonaparte's father many years before, he also needs to work out why a beautiful Chinese woman is trying to assassinate him. He then wants to make sure that he wins the heart of Lady Diana Mars. NYPD Lieutenant Mariucci wants to know why a couple of aged mobsters have been killed by a rather strange Chinese man and what the Leviathan, a huge ship sitting in NY Harbour, is threatening to do to his city.
On the side of the bad guys: Luca Bonaparte, French Foreign Minister promoted to French President when the Prime Minister and President are assassinated. General Moon and his beautiful twin daughters Jet and Bianca – agents of the Te-Wu – the Chinese Secret Police. Major Tony Tang, General Moon's pretty public face and Hu Xu, assassin, torturer, master of disguise and all round bad guy. Baron von Draxis is the German shipbuilder, owner of a hidden Schloss in the mountains, cruel and vicious lover of Jet Moon, who built Leviathan to be the weapon that the French and Chinese will use to bring the free world to its knees.
And that's just a start – there are more characters charging in and out of PIRATE than extras in a Cecil B. DeMille epic movie. Actually PIRATE is a bit of an epic book – at 514 pages, it's a doorstopper of a thriller that starts out at breakneck speed and doesn't let up even in the epilogue.
PIRATE really shines in a few ways. Great characterisations taking stereotypes and making them so big and wide and glorious that they become a homage. Congreve's stiff upper lip is so stiff it's a wonder he can shave in the mornings. Hawke is the bravest, the truest, the most multi-talented human being in the world. Stokely Jones is the classic huge man, short on words, high on emotion, faithful to the last. Then the action scenes which are over the top yet manage to never slip over into caricature. You can almost imagine all of the scenes actually happening. (Well, maybe not, but it's not so outlandish to be completely farcical.) PIRATE obviously has a political element to it, but at no stage does it feel like it's trying to make a propaganda point. As you'd expect from something as tongue in cheek as PIRATE – the suspected traitor in the midst isn't and somebody switches sides in a poignant change of heart.
PIRATE is a rip-roaring good fun, entertaining roller-coaster thriller. Read it and have a darn good cheer from the sidelines.
On the side of the good guys: intrepid Counter-Terrorist freelancer, British Intelligence Officer and all round English Pukka good chap, Lord Alex Hawke and his band of International merry men including man-mountain American Stokely Jones. Harry Brock, American agent, rescued by Hawke from the clutches of Chinese agents on a boat in the South of France is now part of the team. Legendary New Scotland Yard criminalist Ambrose Congreve needs to prove who murdered French Foreign Minister Luca Bonaparte's father many years before, he also needs to work out why a beautiful Chinese woman is trying to assassinate him. He then wants to make sure that he wins the heart of Lady Diana Mars. NYPD Lieutenant Mariucci wants to know why a couple of aged mobsters have been killed by a rather strange Chinese man and what the Leviathan, a huge ship sitting in NY Harbour, is threatening to do to his city.
On the side of the bad guys: Luca Bonaparte, French Foreign Minister promoted to French President when the Prime Minister and President are assassinated. General Moon and his beautiful twin daughters Jet and Bianca – agents of the Te-Wu – the Chinese Secret Police. Major Tony Tang, General Moon's pretty public face and Hu Xu, assassin, torturer, master of disguise and all round bad guy. Baron von Draxis is the German shipbuilder, owner of a hidden Schloss in the mountains, cruel and vicious lover of Jet Moon, who built Leviathan to be the weapon that the French and Chinese will use to bring the free world to its knees.
And that's just a start – there are more characters charging in and out of PIRATE than extras in a Cecil B. DeMille epic movie. Actually PIRATE is a bit of an epic book – at 514 pages, it's a doorstopper of a thriller that starts out at breakneck speed and doesn't let up even in the epilogue.
PIRATE really shines in a few ways. Great characterisations taking stereotypes and making them so big and wide and glorious that they become a homage. Congreve's stiff upper lip is so stiff it's a wonder he can shave in the mornings. Hawke is the bravest, the truest, the most multi-talented human being in the world. Stokely Jones is the classic huge man, short on words, high on emotion, faithful to the last. Then the action scenes which are over the top yet manage to never slip over into caricature. You can almost imagine all of the scenes actually happening. (Well, maybe not, but it's not so outlandish to be completely farcical.) PIRATE obviously has a political element to it, but at no stage does it feel like it's trying to make a propaganda point. As you'd expect from something as tongue in cheek as PIRATE – the suspected traitor in the midst isn't and somebody switches sides in a poignant change of heart.
PIRATE is a rip-roaring good fun, entertaining roller-coaster thriller. Read it and have a darn good cheer from the sidelines.
February 21, 2016
"Pirate" is the third book in the Hawke series, dealing with Hawke and his quest to save the world from a deadly alliance between the Chinese and French. Having read three other books in the "Hawke" series ("Spy" and the first 2), I felt this book was at best rather mediocre. It's less of this book itself, but more of the repetition in the series. The stories are, at their base, exactly the same - good guy Hawke teams up with his friends and saves the world from some great evil. I also found the one-page backgrounds of each character as we met them to be irritating, as they come in every single book, repeated for every single character that we see (including all the characters we met in earlier books). In addition, there are inconsistencies between some books, as in the ending addition of the last book Hawke was in his 20s during the Kennedy administration (1960s), but now by the 2000s he's magically only aged 15 years or so to be in his late 30s. Overall, I'd say any fans of the genre who have not read any other books in the "Hawke" series should read it, but I wouldn't recommend it to readers of other books in the series. It just gets boring after so many books with the same basic story.
September 24, 2011
This is the third time I have read and Alex Hawke adventure by Mr. Bell, and my comments concerning this third book in the series changes little from what I said about the first two pieces. The action is great, the plot, at times, diluted, and the star of the book, Lord Hawke, is too often removed from the real action. For instance, at this novel's conclusion (attention, this may spoil it for you) we are witness to Hawke while he saves a helpful Chinese secret police agent with whom he had had an earlier relationship. While Hawke rescues the beautiful agent from a handful of bad guys with pistols (he is in a seaplane), our author, Bell, writes a short paragraph that basically says how Hawke's friends were busy putting an end to one of the major antagonists of the novel. Seriously missed the boat on what should have been a bang up ending. But then again, that is what I have come to expect from Ted Bell. Maybe I should just stop having any expectations about these books altogether, and i will enjoy them more.
January 1, 2009
Well, I was told by someone it was the best book they ever read. It was a good thriller, but not the best I have read. It is a great international political thriller. I think the main reason I can't get into the Hawke series is because Hawke works for both the British Intelligence and the US Intelligence. It creates a vague background for me. The story was great and surprising and believable...if you read the jacket, it might sound ridiculous. The French teaming up with the Chinese...but the author had some great connections to make it plausible.
It is TOTALLY worth reading. It is very entertaining. It would make a great movie.
It is TOTALLY worth reading. It is very entertaining. It would make a great movie.
April 30, 2014
This is another "Alex Hawke" political thriller/action adventure story. Similar to the previous one I've read, the plot involves dire circumstances threatening catastrophe for the world, the loss of millions of innocent lives, the use of nuclear weapons, and the like. The hero and several of his close associates have a lot more than just nine lives --- they constantly find themselves in dangerous, life-threatening situations where things are not looking good and the odds are not in their favor, yet somehow they miraculously scrape by, survive, and save the day. It all makes for a fast-paced, entertaining read.
May 19, 2016
To be honest, a 2 rating is a gift, so one it is. While reading a book, and I must reread pape after page because I cannot maintain concentration on the novel, then something is clearly wrong. I've ready many Cussler books that many others have said that Bell's novels resemble.....I think not. I bought three of his books at a used book store....luckily, I will return all three, one read, and the other two not.
the only character I enjoyed from this work was the Scotland Yard Congreve detective.....the rest, not so much. Wordy, contrived, and quite boring. The 514 pages might have made a decent book reduced to 350.
the only character I enjoyed from this work was the Scotland Yard Congreve detective.....the rest, not so much. Wordy, contrived, and quite boring. The 514 pages might have made a decent book reduced to 350.
January 17, 2016
This was not the worst book I've ever read. It was the 3rd book in a series and I have not read the others. Apparently, reading the other books would have prepared me for this one. I felt the characters were undeveloped. They were all "super" people who were shot, stabbed, tortured and still managed to live and thrive adversity after adversity with only a few hours between each event. I read all 514 pages hoping there would be something like reality and never found it.
November 21, 2014
Even though this didn't have the big bang ending that I like, there's nothing better than justice served Hawke and Stokely style!! Loved this story with its 3 inter-related story lines, all coming together at the end. Listened on audio CD and many times laughed out loud at the antics and sayings of Stokely Jones--absolutely love this character! 8 out of 10 for me.
January 21, 2010
Great book, a page turner! Highly recommended!
Read
June 29, 2014Not a very good author. Really never brought the story together
February 11, 2019
SUBJECT READER REVIEW WITH PLOT SPOILERS FOLLOWS:
First of all, kudos to Ted Bell for a unique take on China's eternal quest for oil, which represents its highest strategic imperative. Lord knows there have been dozens of novels with the PRC's oil quest as its central theme, but to come up with a plan to be invited in to occupy a Gulf oil-producing nation is an incredible freaking stretch, don'tcha think? And Bell did it credibly, albeit in league with a diabolically insane German tycoon and Napoleon Bonaparte's megalomaniac descendent. Interesting trio: one willing to incinerate the world, counting on a billion Chinese surviving to somehow prevail over the cinders; the keeper of Hitler's holy flame, intent on Schloss Reichenbach being the temple of the Thousand Year Reich; and finally, Napoleon's descendent, apprenticed by Union Corse into making his bones killing his father, playing Moon's puppet trumpeting past glories anew until the guillotine comes beckoning. A very interesting mixture of certain death if not for...
Jet Moon is hands down the most interesting character introduced in 'Pirate.' With sister Bianca, Sun-yat Moon's twin daughters, they cast a formidable duo of lethal operatives for PRC secret police organization Te-Wu. For their father, they are damn near unstoppable purveyors of Moon's sinister wishes. Except that Jet Moon has this stubborn independent streak, which makes her unmanageable and unpredictable. For instance, sent to kill Alex Hawke in Cannes she instead is spellbound charmed into multiple attempts to supplicate his vital bodily fluids. Her participation in the overall PRC conspiracy renders Hawke suspicious but amenable, telling Stokely Jones to 'make sure nothing happens to her.' Turns out Jet Moon knows more about the PRC master plan than almost anybody, so Hawke keeps an eye on her as sort of a barometer. But even Jet didn't know the levels of depraved evil her father and Baron Augustus von Draxis had perfected as a failsafe. No, Stokely Jones put that together burglarizing von Draxis' Die Unterwelt at Tempelhof AND Moon's own design specs aboard the Grand Dragon floating restaurant in Hong Kong. And then the shit did hit the fan....
China needs oil. Germany needs the US to disappear as a super power. Luca Bonaparte needs to propel the French Republic levels of world dominance Napoleon once achieved. No sweat, just snatch Omani Sultan Aji Abbas' family back home as prisoners, impairing Abbas' leverage and have him sign a request for France to assume control of Oman until his political opponents can be dealt with. Of course the US snoop dog NSA has sniffed this out and advised POTUS and the DNI, so the CIA and Alexander Hawke form the most formidable commando team ever focused on an objective. Of course it's Oman and Abbas has dozens of wives and a herd of children, so the French imprison them in the ancient but formidable Fort Mahoud on Masira Island just off the coast of Oman. The scene at Mahoud is chaotic, but Hawke's band overcomes the opposition and has Abbas televise a plea for his countrymen to come to Oman's aid in his dying breaths. The flotilla would remind one of a Dunkirk II.
Luca Bonaparte's grand vision begins to leak oil as Moon and von Draxis initiate FAILSAFE. The secrets Stokely learned in his theft of intellectual property were that von Draxis had built four supertankers for France to transport the Omani oil in, at the same time he was constructing his answer to the QE II--Leviathan, the world's largest ocean liner, ever. They were all powered by nuclear reactors, hence the reactor installation and keel attachment had been done in Chinese shipyards. Just as Leviathan's pulling up to Pier 90 at the Marine Cruise Terminal, POTUS gets a call from his PRC counterpart telling him either he capitulates on the new French colony of Oman or New York City disappears. Who woulda thought of hiding thermonuclear weapons in the huge lead keels of the supertankers and the Leviathan? Extortion unlimited, right?
I'm from this school of thought that remembers, 'Never underestimate the ability of a Master Chief Petty Officer to solve mechanical problems.' I'm done telling all the good shit--you're gonna have to read 'Pirate' for yourself to see how it ends, but it's a no bullshit thriller down to the last few klicks to reach the Continental Shelf!
First of all, kudos to Ted Bell for a unique take on China's eternal quest for oil, which represents its highest strategic imperative. Lord knows there have been dozens of novels with the PRC's oil quest as its central theme, but to come up with a plan to be invited in to occupy a Gulf oil-producing nation is an incredible freaking stretch, don'tcha think? And Bell did it credibly, albeit in league with a diabolically insane German tycoon and Napoleon Bonaparte's megalomaniac descendent. Interesting trio: one willing to incinerate the world, counting on a billion Chinese surviving to somehow prevail over the cinders; the keeper of Hitler's holy flame, intent on Schloss Reichenbach being the temple of the Thousand Year Reich; and finally, Napoleon's descendent, apprenticed by Union Corse into making his bones killing his father, playing Moon's puppet trumpeting past glories anew until the guillotine comes beckoning. A very interesting mixture of certain death if not for...
Jet Moon is hands down the most interesting character introduced in 'Pirate.' With sister Bianca, Sun-yat Moon's twin daughters, they cast a formidable duo of lethal operatives for PRC secret police organization Te-Wu. For their father, they are damn near unstoppable purveyors of Moon's sinister wishes. Except that Jet Moon has this stubborn independent streak, which makes her unmanageable and unpredictable. For instance, sent to kill Alex Hawke in Cannes she instead is spellbound charmed into multiple attempts to supplicate his vital bodily fluids. Her participation in the overall PRC conspiracy renders Hawke suspicious but amenable, telling Stokely Jones to 'make sure nothing happens to her.' Turns out Jet Moon knows more about the PRC master plan than almost anybody, so Hawke keeps an eye on her as sort of a barometer. But even Jet didn't know the levels of depraved evil her father and Baron Augustus von Draxis had perfected as a failsafe. No, Stokely Jones put that together burglarizing von Draxis' Die Unterwelt at Tempelhof AND Moon's own design specs aboard the Grand Dragon floating restaurant in Hong Kong. And then the shit did hit the fan....
China needs oil. Germany needs the US to disappear as a super power. Luca Bonaparte needs to propel the French Republic levels of world dominance Napoleon once achieved. No sweat, just snatch Omani Sultan Aji Abbas' family back home as prisoners, impairing Abbas' leverage and have him sign a request for France to assume control of Oman until his political opponents can be dealt with. Of course the US snoop dog NSA has sniffed this out and advised POTUS and the DNI, so the CIA and Alexander Hawke form the most formidable commando team ever focused on an objective. Of course it's Oman and Abbas has dozens of wives and a herd of children, so the French imprison them in the ancient but formidable Fort Mahoud on Masira Island just off the coast of Oman. The scene at Mahoud is chaotic, but Hawke's band overcomes the opposition and has Abbas televise a plea for his countrymen to come to Oman's aid in his dying breaths. The flotilla would remind one of a Dunkirk II.
Luca Bonaparte's grand vision begins to leak oil as Moon and von Draxis initiate FAILSAFE. The secrets Stokely learned in his theft of intellectual property were that von Draxis had built four supertankers for France to transport the Omani oil in, at the same time he was constructing his answer to the QE II--Leviathan, the world's largest ocean liner, ever. They were all powered by nuclear reactors, hence the reactor installation and keel attachment had been done in Chinese shipyards. Just as Leviathan's pulling up to Pier 90 at the Marine Cruise Terminal, POTUS gets a call from his PRC counterpart telling him either he capitulates on the new French colony of Oman or New York City disappears. Who woulda thought of hiding thermonuclear weapons in the huge lead keels of the supertankers and the Leviathan? Extortion unlimited, right?
I'm from this school of thought that remembers, 'Never underestimate the ability of a Master Chief Petty Officer to solve mechanical problems.' I'm done telling all the good shit--you're gonna have to read 'Pirate' for yourself to see how it ends, but it's a no bullshit thriller down to the last few klicks to reach the Continental Shelf!
October 16, 2025
This book is basically a James Bond clone.. You have the super suave hero, the amazingly hot girl who lusts after him, even though he is her enemy, the sidekick who kicks ass, and the very, very English detective who thinks he's Sherlock Holmes.
Then we have the villains: The French Minister who thinks he is Napoleon Boneparte re-incarnated, and may actually be, who assassinates his way to become The President, the German billionaire who's family were Nazis, and wants to see the World at war so he can profit, and the Chinese General, who's scheme to take over the Middle East might just work if Hawke can't be stopped. Add in a twin sister to the girl in love with Hawke, who is working with a chilling Chinese assassin, and it's a race to see if Hawke can stop New York being blown up in a nuclear explosion, before the French invade the Sultanate of Oman, and turn the oil over to the Chinese.
It's escapist action at it's best, and several times I thought one or more of the characters were going to die, but it all end quite anti-climatically, which is a shame considering how the story builds up to it.
Oh well, one to the next in the series.
Then we have the villains: The French Minister who thinks he is Napoleon Boneparte re-incarnated, and may actually be, who assassinates his way to become The President, the German billionaire who's family were Nazis, and wants to see the World at war so he can profit, and the Chinese General, who's scheme to take over the Middle East might just work if Hawke can't be stopped. Add in a twin sister to the girl in love with Hawke, who is working with a chilling Chinese assassin, and it's a race to see if Hawke can stop New York being blown up in a nuclear explosion, before the French invade the Sultanate of Oman, and turn the oil over to the Chinese.
It's escapist action at it's best, and several times I thought one or more of the characters were going to die, but it all end quite anti-climatically, which is a shame considering how the story builds up to it.
Oh well, one to the next in the series.
December 15, 2019
Alex Hawke is not Gabriel Allon. Alex Hawke is not George Smiley. Instead, Alex Hawke is something along the lines of a love child of Dirk Pitt and James Bond -- a love child weaned on testosterone instead of milk. This is the third book in the series, and the fact that it's taken me this long to get to it speaks to the fact that there's room in my reading life for thrillers on the thoroughly unbelievable end of the spectrum, but they're not my top priority. My biggest issue with this one is that Hawke is British, but plays the lead role in what should be American operations from start to finish -- ones that America is more than capable of handling without farming them out to Hawke and his band of macho misfits. As usual, the characters have the depth of a sheet of paper, but this is not a character-driven series, so it's all good. And these thin characters are thoroughly likable and deserving of support, so there's that, as well. In short, if you know what you're getting into, this can be a fun read. If not, you might be putting a dent in your wall sooner, rather than later...
December 9, 2023
This has been a good series so far, but this installment felt too long, and the frequent use of dialogue seemed almost draggy in places.
Alex Hawke, the main protagonist, is casually sexing up a Chinese girl as the book opens. She’s an actress, and she’s also part of The Chinese Communist Party’s secret police. Her goal initially seems to be Alex’s death and disposition.
In France, a direct descendant of Napoleon wants to head the government, and he’ll stop at nothing to force the issue. Before this ends, a prime minister and other government officials will die in his quest for hegemony.
This lose cannon Frenchman forms an alliance with the Chinese. He helps them get more oil; they help him gain greater power over the Brits and Americans.
This was ok; it was at least worthy of my time to eventually unearth the back cover. Granted, there’s some suspense here and some swashbuckling hot-led action for Alex Hawke and his associates, but I’ll bet I won’t remember this plot in six days let alone six months.
Alex Hawke, the main protagonist, is casually sexing up a Chinese girl as the book opens. She’s an actress, and she’s also part of The Chinese Communist Party’s secret police. Her goal initially seems to be Alex’s death and disposition.
In France, a direct descendant of Napoleon wants to head the government, and he’ll stop at nothing to force the issue. Before this ends, a prime minister and other government officials will die in his quest for hegemony.
This lose cannon Frenchman forms an alliance with the Chinese. He helps them get more oil; they help him gain greater power over the Brits and Americans.
This was ok; it was at least worthy of my time to eventually unearth the back cover. Granted, there’s some suspense here and some swashbuckling hot-led action for Alex Hawke and his associates, but I’ll bet I won’t remember this plot in six days let alone six months.
September 13, 2021
This is the 3rd in a series of Alexander Hawke books. I hadn't read the 1st 2. It was fine although there were lots of references to what I assume happened in those books.
I like thrillers, but found this one quite derivative of Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt. In this case our hero is a British descendent of a pirate with a James Bond kind of insouciance. Like Dirk Pitt he has a crew of characters who help him
The far fetched plot involves a French descendent of Napoleon who conspires to take over that country, ally it with the French, invade Oman to take over its oil and sell it to the Chinese. The Chinese are quite belligerent and are conspiring to nuke America.
Alexander Hawke and his intrepid crew to the rescue!
I actually like the characters in his crew and their interaction was well written. The craziness of the plot was just a bit too much for me.
I like thrillers, but found this one quite derivative of Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt. In this case our hero is a British descendent of a pirate with a James Bond kind of insouciance. Like Dirk Pitt he has a crew of characters who help him
The far fetched plot involves a French descendent of Napoleon who conspires to take over that country, ally it with the French, invade Oman to take over its oil and sell it to the Chinese. The Chinese are quite belligerent and are conspiring to nuke America.
Alexander Hawke and his intrepid crew to the rescue!
I actually like the characters in his crew and their interaction was well written. The craziness of the plot was just a bit too much for me.
Read
January 3, 2023Aboard a ship in the south of France, an American spy faces certain torture and death for the vital, explosive intelligence he possesses. In Paris, a ruthless and powerful descendant of Napoleon has forged an unholy alliance with China for its growing nuclear arsenal, poised to send America and the world to the brink of a gut-wrenching showdown. Now, in a maelstrom of razor's-edge danger, Alex Hawke must enter the nightmare visions of madmen to defuse an axis of evil no historian could have predicted -- and no living soul would survive.
July 24, 2017
Ahh... A good, old, James Bond-esque thriller novel. I mean, how could you go wrong?
Don't get me wrong, I liked it... enough. It just felt really messy and pointless, in a way. Like, don't show me tea over in Britain while somebody else is getting shot at over in Paris.
The action was written very nicely, but there was just too much mess for me to appreciate it fully.
Sorry, Ted. I liked Hawke, but this one just fell short.
Don't get me wrong, I liked it... enough. It just felt really messy and pointless, in a way. Like, don't show me tea over in Britain while somebody else is getting shot at over in Paris.
The action was written very nicely, but there was just too much mess for me to appreciate it fully.
Sorry, Ted. I liked Hawke, but this one just fell short.
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