Assassin

By Ted Bell

Book Overview

Alex Hawke is back. In this explosive, jaw-tightening follow-up to Ted Bell's "rich, spellbinding, and absorbing" (Clive Cussler) debut national bestseller, Hawke, fearless intelligence operative Lord Alexander Hawke matches wits with a cunning and bloodthirsty psychopath in a desperate race to avert an American Armageddon.

In an elegant palazzo on the Grand Canal, an American ambassador's tryst turns deadly. In the seamy underbelly of London, a pub-crawling killer is on the loose. And in a storybook chapel nestled in the Cotswolds, a marriage made in heaven turns to hell on earth. Isolated incidents? Or links in a chain of events hurtling towards catastrophe? So begins Assassin, the tour de force thriller that heralds the return of every terrorist's worst nightmare, Alex Hawke.

A shadowy figure known as the Dog is believed to be the ruthless terrorist who is systematically and savagely assassinating American diplomats and their families around the globe. As the deadly toll mounts inexorably, Hawke, along with former NYPD cop and Navy SEAL Stokely Jones, is called upon by the U.S. government to launch a search for the assassin behind the murders.

Hawke, who "'makes James Bond look like a "slovenly, dull-witted clockpuncher"'" (Kirkus Reviews), is soon following a trail that leads back to London in the go-go nineties, when Arab oil money fueled lavish, and sometimes fiendish, lifestyles. Other murky clues point to the Florida Keys, where a vicious killer hides behind the gates of a fabled museum. And to a remote Indonesian island where a madman tinkers with strains of a deadly virus and slyly bides his time.

Hawke must call upon resources deep within himself. He must enter a race against time to stop a cataclysmic attack on America's most populous cities and avenge the inexplicable and horrific crime that has left him devastated.

Brimming with relentless action and stylish detail, and featuring a hero that readers will stand up and cheer for, Assassin is a gripping adventure. And definitely not recommended for the faint of heart.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1416587128
• ISBN13: 9781416587125
• Release Date: May 2008
• Publisher: Pocket Star
• Length: 608 Pages
• Weight: 0.86 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 4.8" x 7.4"

Customer Reviews

cuts like a knife

this story has plaudits to its scope of twists and turns the mechanism behind his grasp of the subject puts shivers thru ones system his pull on your senses screams at your temperate saline approach to a problem mr bell rips that screen off the page and forces you to look at just how devious some people think this story does not leave a leaf unturned so fasten your seats and just hang onto what tracery of sanity you have left after reading this book which launches you off to an unseen world seldom if ever into the mind of a madman enter alex hawke

Great book

I really enjoyed this follow up to Hawke. The adventure was great, and it wasn't trying too hard to be "bond-like" Highly recommended

A taut, well-crafted thriller?

I'll have to say I'm confounded by some to the so-called 'literary' reviews I've read for this book. Poorly written? It is one of the most carefully written books of the genre I personally have ever read! It is written with the authority of someone who clearly knows what he is doing, never labored or tentative. Unlike the paper-thin characters who inhabit most of these cookie-cutter spy books, the inhabitants of this one leap off the page alive and full of humor and wickedness. This book feels like a seamless performance, a fictive dream that keeps you turning pages long into the night, hoping you don't wake up. Some of these puffed up critics have been reading too much Clancy. Sure, he knows where the men's rooms at the CIA are, but give me a break. All I know is, it's been a long, long time since I've been so completely immersed inside a well-crafted thriller. Maybe that's the problem with some of these readers--they stumble across something that's not exactly like what they're accustomed to and it sends them into an absolute tizzy.

Alex Hawke... James Bond or Dick Marcinko?

A little of both actually. This is a must read. Very entertaining throughout. The fact that it was very realistic also added a twist that is a bit harder to find in some action/spec ops thrillers. Check it out.

Rip-Roaring and Non-Stop Thriller!-the best!

I've read 'em all...and this is the first time I've gotten excited about a new series in a LONG time! Alex Hawke is my new literary hero and I think he's long overdue. This guy has a lot of style but he'll kill you with his bare hands. The book is wonderfully written by the way and you can read it for the action (which doesn't stop) or you car read it for just the sheer pleasure of a really well-written thriller. I, for one, am counting the days until "Pirate" comes out...can't wait!!!

This thriller's a gripper

Ted Bell is a master yarn-spinner of the most exquisite type. He knows how to slip in and out of each character's: ... skin; ... speech pattern; ... and inherent response to events... in a way that few writers know how to do, or could even understand and appreciate. I call this book a 'gripper' because it gripped my attention so strongly that I was pulled away from EVERYTHING else for a couple of days. I've only experienced this total-immersion attraction with the works of a few other writers - Trevanian and John Fowles, for example. I'm an advertising guy who has zero aspiration to do what Ted does so deftly, but as an advertising copywriter and business educator myself, I can see little hints of the former advertising exec peeking through the master plotting and descriptive exposition. Every now and again; especially in the devastatingly funny chapter about the London movie première. What's neat is Bell's ad-background element doesn't get in the way of the story or the entertainment - it adds to it. But what's especially appealing to me about the writing is that Bell knows when to be superficial and blatant, and when to be deep, ruminative and subtle. If you are a discriminating reader, some of the superficial and blatant exposition and dialogue may throw you off at first. Yet once you allow yourself to get pulled into the story and engaged you'll appreciate the author's artistry. You will know -- as they say in the storytelling trade -- that you are in good hands.