The Secret Soldier by Alex Berenson

Book:  The Secret Soldier 

Author:  Alex Berenson 

Grade:  C

Recommended To:  Magicians, soldiers, 

I just finished the 5th book in this John Wells series and I have a piece of advice for Berenson:  Stop writing a book a year, your writing suffers if you do that.

This book is okay.  It isn't great.  It is actually about the same as the other John Wells books, so average.  This book is about the internal politics of Saudi Arabia and I had a lot of trouble getting into it.  I started the book a month ago, put it down and just finished it yesterday.

The problem is that the story just isn't that compelling. Do I really care if part of the Saudi royal family is trying to bring down the other half?  Not really.  Do I really care that John Wells has some "moral dilemma" about killing people.  No, that's his job.  He was an undercover soldier with the terrorists a couple of books ago, you can't convince me now that he has feelings and has to "add 6 more men to his death list."  If he doesn't like killing people, or at least isn't bothered by it, then he should find a new line of work, and then where would the story series be?

Berenson has this annoying habit of attempting to create suspense by starting a sentence -

And then continuing that sentence on the next line.  Um, stop that.  It is super annoying and I actually add pauses into my reading, so then part of the time I forget what I was reading in the line above if there is a pause.  It isn't suspenseful and it isn't a new way to write books.  It is just dumb.

This is a good book for someone who likes action novels where there is a strong hero.  It is a fast read and kept my interest after I got back into the book.

Happy Reading!!

Catching Fire and Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Books:  Catching Fire and Mockingjay


Author:  Suzanne Collins 


Grade:  
Catching Fire:  B 
Mockingjay:  B+ 


Recommended To:  Adults, Suzanne is fooling herself if she thinks these are YA novels. 


Catching Fire


There are some in my book club world that believe that Catching Fire was better than The Hunger Games, but I disagree with those women wholeheartedly.  Catching Fire follows Katniss on her journey back to District 12 after she wins the Hunger Games.  But, this is the year of the Quarter Quell - the 75th anniversary of the games where there are special circumstances for the games.  I don't want to give too much away, but there's a mega huge surprise at the end and I had to re-read the last 6 chapters or so to make sense of the ending.

Catching Fire was not as good as the first in the series because for most of the book, it was much of the same, except now there are uprisings in the districts and Katniss is super rich because of her victory.  The ending was sufficiently shocking to make up for some of the repetitiveness in the rest of the story.

This isn't to say that I didn't like Catching Fire.  It was magnificently well written and again has very dark themes that are not suitable for children or even some young adults.

Mockingjay 


This was far and above the best book in the series.  Katniss has escaped to the mysterious District 13 to begin healing from her ordeal in Catching Fire.  What I really like about this book is that Katniss is so broken.  She is absolutely not a typical hero - she has feelings, emotions, and severe PTSD from her experiences.  I am so glad the author didn't make her any stronger because Katniss's weakness made her believable and extremely interesting.

That said, she still does a lot of hero things - but she does them reluctantly and she does them with a sense that the decisions she makes may not be the right ones.  I appreciate Collins' restraint and ability to craft a believable character that is also heroic.  Isn't that always it anyway - the heroes are the ones who are actually pretty normal?

That is what makes Mockingjay the best book in the series.  There are some superb actions scenes too though, so if you aren't interested in Katniss getting over her issues, Mockingjay does not lack for a great story line.

Happy Reading!!

The 13th Hour by Richard Doetsch

Book:  The 13th Hour 

Author:  Richard Doetsch

Grade: C

Recommended To:  Thriller fans, People who can't read clocks. 

I feel a little bad giving this book a C, but I give way too many B+'s and honestly I liked this book, but it has an audience that is limited to fast-paced thriller fiction.

This book starts out with the last chapter and works its way backward into time and the story.  The premise is very fresh, which was why I liked this book so much.  The main dude is at home and sees his wife get murdered right in front of him.  Then, as he is being questioned as the murderer, a mysterious man appears and gives him a watch that makes him go back in time an hour at a time until he figures out who killed his wife.

This book has a lot of action and a lot of twists and turns that are totally unexpected.  I liked that the premise was original.  And, instead of a story that just goes in "forward" motion - this book kept me thinking about what had happened previously and this meant that I couldn't just veg out while reading. 

I recommend this book to anyone that likes thriller/action books.  I checked out Doetsch's website and evidently he is an extreme sports enthusiast who enjoys "100 foot drops into water without anything to slow his descent."  Crazy.  But, he writes well - so hopefully he doesn't kill himself before coming up with something else captivating.

Happy Reading!!

The Silent Man by Alex Berenson

Book:  The Silent Man 

Author:  Alex Berenson 


Grade: C+

Recommended To:  Spy Fans who want a book to be over as fast as possible.


This is Alex Berenson's third book in the John Wells series.  I also reviewed his second book and you can find that review here.  This book was better, but Berenson needs to work on his character development and either needs to ditch the romance or improve upon it.

This book is about some terrorists that obtain two nuclear bombs from the Russian arsenal and then bring them to the United States to dismantle and use in their own "special weapon."  His words, not mine; but that phrase kept making me thing of a bad romance novel instead of a spy/thriller.  In a sort of unrelated story line, a guy from the second novel also tries to kill Wells, but instead shoots his GF, Exley.  And, Wells, being the completely one-dimensional character that he is, can only think about revenge.

Here's the first problem.  These characters are so flat!  Wells has zero personality and all he wants to do is kill kill kill.  That makes for a very fast read, but not necessarily for a good story.  Also, Wells doesn't do anything that the CIA tells him to do.  He goes rogue a lot, which lends an unrealistic element to this novel.   Sure, he's a national hero from Book #1, but does he really lack all common sense?  Apparently so. 

The second problem is that the romance between John Wells and Jenny Exley is one of the worst that I've read in a spy/thriller novel in a very long time.  For example, she gets shot and he hangs out by her bed for a while, but can't think of anything else but murdering the guy that he thinks did this to her.  So he leaves her, and of course she asks him not to go, but he does anyway.  At this point, I just want them to break-up.  He has earned the worst-boyfriend-of-the-decade award, and I mostly want her to succumb to her wounds so I never have to read about their "relationship" again.  Berenson tries to describe the characters' emotions with their actions and it makes for an extraordinarily thin love story.  In my opinion the entire line needs to be scrapped.  These books would be better without it.

Finally, and I know I'm going long here, Berenson spends 98% of the novel trying to find this bomb.  Russia is playing games, the terrorists are dismantling the "special weapon" in extreme detail,  Wells is flying all over Europe and terrorizing children, and then BOOM, the story is finished in literally 5 pages.  All because Wells sees an SUV that is probably carrying the bomb.  Sigh.  I felt like I invested a lot of time in reading the first 98% only to be totally let down by the lack of action at the end.  Let's be honest, we only read these books for the action and this failed.

So, this book gets a C+.  That's the best I can do.

Either way, this is a very fast read and I recommend it to people who love spy/thriller novels and don't much care about the substance or characters in the story.

The Ghost War by Alex Berenson

Book: The Ghost War (John Wells #2)

Author: Alex Berenson

Grade: C

Recommended To: Anyone who enjoys a quick action novel, but doesn't mind a lot of plot holes.


The Ghost War is Alex Berenson's second book and like many authors he has chosen to focus on one character and place that character in a different situation in each novel. That character is John Wells who is a Jack Bauer/ 24-esq type figure that can basically save America, no matter what. In this novel John Wells has to stop a imminent war between China and the United States.

Here's what I liked about the novel:

1. It is a fast read. Alex breaks up his novel with short paragraphs and large text which made the 539 pages of this paperback fly by. Further, if you don't really care about plot and just want something entertaining, then this is a great book. But, I found that the holes were too numerous and treacherous to allow me to enjoy this book.

Here's what I didn't like about the novel:

1. Compared to the first John Wells novel, this plot was extremely thin. Berenson spends 500 pages working up to a finale that is only about 50 pages long and then struggles in those last few pages to explain the first 3/4 of the book.

***Spoiler Alert***

The reason that China is in a struggle with the US is that one man, Li, wants to rule China all by himself. So, he orchestrates an incredibly complex plan involving Iran, Afghanistan and North Korea in order to provoke the US into attacking China. Honestly, WHAT? The whole "reason" presented behind this nonsense is that Li thinks he can do a better job of running China than the current guy in charge. I felt like I waited 450 pages to find out the excellent reason behind this "war" and then was totally disappointed as Berenson struggled to put some emphasis behind this completely ridiculous reason.

2. Berenson has obviously researched his novels, even though his plot line is inexcusably weak, and he likes to show off his knowledge by making the dialogue authentic. So, he uses a lot of military and CIA lingo that the average reader probably wouldn't know. Then, annoyingly, he explains what the lingo means even before allowing the character to finish the sentence. This results in a series of asides where the narrator is explaining a bunch of stuff to the reader that adds nothing to the book and just draws attention to the choppiness of the narrative. It. is. distracting.

Overall, I give this book a solid C. I think it was a marked step down from The Faithful Spy which was his first John Wells novel and merited at least a B grade. Look for that review in the coming weeks as I try to catch up on everything I've read this year!

Happy Reading!