The Secret Soldier (A John Wells Novel)
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This is the second John Wells (main character) book I’ve read, the Faithful Spy (http://www.2-speed.com/library/alex-berenson/the-faithful-spy-a-john-wells-novel/) was the first. I enjoyed this one much more than the previous. John Wells is an interesting character. Not the retired, lonely, outcast assassin like Barry Eisler’s John Rain; Mark Greaney’s Grey Man; or Vince Flynn’s Mitch Rapp. Well he’s close. He is retired and ex-CIA, but he still really enjoys what he does and he wasn’t strictly an assassin by title. That’s not to say he didn’t and doesn’t kill a lot of people and spend much of his time worrying that maybe he is an assassin.
The Wells character is perfectly setup for today’s world. He’s an American and a Muslim. He has dark skin, speaks fluent Arabic and appears to blend in well anywhere he goes in the Middle East. How convenient. These facts seem only slightly absurd at certain points of the book. Like most stories of this genre, it’s really all about the setup and action, the reader doesn’t and shouldn’t get too caught up in the details.
There is a good balance between action and the setup-for-more-action and while the action parts aren’t pulse-quickening, they are fast-moving and enjoyable. John wells as a character is cool and sufficiently troubled to keep the reader on his/her toes. Initially, I didn’t like the flow of the book, with respect to forward and backward looking chapters, but I got the hang of it after a while.
A fun read. It probably would be the first book of this genre that I’d pick up (see my comments on Mark Greaney’s Gray Man books), but I will definitely be reading more Alex Berenson John Well’s Novels.
Tags: Espionage, Non-Fiction
- Started reading:
- 7th March 2011
- Finished reading:
- 26th March 2011