Spy
A Thriller
By Ted Bell Thorndike Press Large Print (2007)
ISBN 10: 1-59722-418-9
ISBN 13: 978-1-59722-418-5
Genre: Thriller
Reviewed by Auggie Moore - February 19, 2007
Alex Hawke lives again in Ted Bell's thrilling novel, Spy. From the moment you open this book, until the moment you reluctantly put it aside, Bell grabs your attention, and never lets go. To say it is a page turner, is an understatement! As the title suggestions, this is a story about espionage, and its protagonist is Hawke, an MI-6 agent with a knack for getting the impossible done. In this case, he finds himself facing the ultimate evil, in the form of a deranged terrorist who has been using slave labor at his Al Qaeda training camp, located deep in the heart of the Amazon rainforest. Left unchecked, this man plans to unleash a horrific attack on the United States, and he plans to instigate a cross-border war between the United States and Mexico by inflaming anti-immigration sentiments along the U.S. side of the border.
To help stop this fiendish plot, Hawke is aided by Inspector Ambrose Congreve of Scotland Yard, and his friend Stokely Jones who just happens to be a former Navy Seal. This is not the first time that British super-spy Hawke has come to the aid of the United States, and I hope that Bell keeps Hawke coming back to do it again! Hawke is a wonderful character who has a knack for getting into impossible situations, and getting back out again in one piece. Best of all, this is perhaps Bell's most complex story to date, and definitely one of his best. Hawke is an apt successor to James Bond, and like his predecessor, Hawke is a womanizer and he is fond of having the well-earned drink or two after a hard day working to save the world. The story, itself, is technologically savvy, the action is breath taking, and the scenario is realistic enough to give you nightmares. The bad guys in this book are legion and include not only Islamic terrorist, but also South American drug cartel members, Mexican radicals who want to reclaim the American South West, and American hot-heads. As you can imagine, the good guys will have their hands full stopping the myriad of bad guys and the various, nefarious plots they are hatching.
If you've never read any of the earlier Hawke books, you might want to wait to read this book until you have done so. However, if you can't find any of the earlier books, you'll still be able to follow the plot without any difficulty, you'll just not be up on the back-stories of the main characters.
Spy is a great, fast-read, and if you like techno-thrillers or espionage stories, you can't miss with this one!
Related Reviews:
Hawke, by Ted Bell.
When a Soviet stealth sub, fully loaded with nuclear weapons is taken over by terrorist, it falls to Alex Hawke, secret agent, to stop the terrorist before they can carry out their plan to attack the United States.
Assassin, by Ted Bell.
American diplomats are being murdered, a megalomaniac is playing around with germ warfare, and a group of terrorists are out to destroy the United States. The only man who can stop this escalating spiral of violence is the British born super-spy, Alexander Hawke whose wife was recently murdered minutes after their wedding. Can he deal with his grief and save the world? Only time will tell...
