Review of "The Silent Man: A John Wells Espionage Thriller" by Alex Berenson

In Alex Berenson's 'John Wells' novels, Wells is a CIA agent whose mission is to stop terrorists.



In this 3rd book in the series, Wells has had too much exposure in Afghanistan, Pakistan, China, Russia, etc. to be 'undercover', and he's living outside Washington DC with his fiancée, fellow CIA agent Jennifer Exley.



Wells is on the 'enemies' list of many rogue countries, and his and Exley's residence is guarded 24/7.



Unfortunately, John and Jennifer are more vulnerable when they're out and about, and an attack when the duo are driving to work leaves Jennifer badly injured, facing a long hospitalization and painful rehab.





Wells learns the strike was ordered by Russian arms dealer Pierre Kowalski.....



.....and John sets out to track down and kill the Russian, probably in the most painful way possible.



Meanwhile, a catastrophic situation is brewing elsewhere. Middle Eastern terrorists have formed a cabal, and mean to destroy both the United States and Russia.



The fanatics manage to steal two nuclear bombs from a Russian armory (a feat that's described step-by-step in the book, in case you want to try it.)





The Middle Eastern zealots don't have the Russian nuclear codes, so they are going to extract the uranium from the purloined bombs and build their own device (this procedure is also described step-by-step).



The fanatics plan to bomb Washington DC during the State of the Union address, which will wipe out the entire U.S. government. If this doesn't work out, the bombers have alternate targets in mind.



To insure the biggest possible explosion, the terrorists need a good quantity of beryllium, which they hope to buy from Pierre Kowalski.



Thus we have all the players in place - John Wells, Pierre Kowalski, and the Middle Eastern zealots.

Of course this is the bare bones of the plot, which is intricate, suspenseful, and more or less realistic. (Terrorists should know detonating an enormous bomb would blow back on the Middle East, AT LEAST with the devastating fallout circling the world. The fanatics in this novel don't seem bothered about this, but it's fiction after all.)





All the major characters in the story - including the Americans, Russians, and Middle Easterners -are well-rounded, with motivations that make sense to themselves. The book is a page turner, and I was on tenterhooks to find out what would happen.

One thing is clear: it would be good to have John Wells around in an emergency.



Well-constructed story, recommended to fans of espionage thrillers.

Rating: 4 stars

Review of "Deadline: A Virgil Flowers Thriller" by John Sandford

 

Virgil Flowers thrillers are spinoffs from John Sandford's 'Prey' series featuring Lucas Davenport - the lead investigator for Minnesota's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA).



Virgil Flowers is also a detective for the BCA, and Lucas is his boss. In this 8th book in the 'Virgil Flowers' series, the investigator gets involved in three cases, which range from dogs to drugs to murder.



*****

As the novel opens, these are dark days for dog lovers in southeast Minnesota. A ring of dog thieves are kidnapping pooches from their homes and selling them on the black market and to research labs. One of the dognappers is a scoundrel called D. Wayne Sharf, who's adept at snatching canines.



D. Wayne has just stolen Winky Butterfield's two beloved black labs, and Winky is bereft, angry, and vengeful.



Flowers' fishing buddy Johnson Johnson asks Virgil to catch the dog thieves and retrieve the missing canines, or else a group of vigilantes will take the law into their own hands.



Flowers' hunt for the stolen dogs takes him up into the hills of southeast Minnesota.....



.....where Virgil comes across a commercial meth lab housed in a trailer.



While Virgil is combing the Minnesota bluffs for stolen dogs and drug manufacturers, he happens to meet a local boy called Muddy Ruff. Muddy is an observant, rifle-toting twelve-year-old who knows the area well, and the boy is very helpful to Virgil and the drug-busting Feds.



While all this going on, a murder occurs in Trippton, Minnesota. The victim is a journalist called Clancy Connelly, who has unearthed an embezzlement scheme being perpetrated by the Buchanon County School Board.



The school board members - ALL of whom are supposedly upstanding citizens - have been stealing at least one million dollars per year by inflating prices for gas (for school buses) and by perpetrating other larcenous schemes.



When the school board members learn Connelly is about to expose them, they hold a meeting and vote to kill him. Connelly is shot in the back before he can file his report, and Flowers is called in to investigate.



Flowers soon becomes suspicious of the school board, and he takes steps - sometimes involving threats - to unmask the board members as thieves and killers.



The embezzlers become exceedingly nervous, which leads to more homicides, and Virgil himself becomes a target. (Who knew school boards were so ruthless‽‽)



The Virgil Flowers novels mix humor with crime-solving, and "That F****n' Flowers" (Virgil's nickname) is a fierce investigator with a heart of gold.



Even dogs know this, which leads to a great finale for this thriller.



This is a good suspense novel, highly recommended.

Rating: 3.5 stars