William S. CohenReseñas

Over the years, the U. S. government and military has lost several nuclear bombs. What happens when people who believe that they should be in charge of everybody else's lives find out where one is waiting to be picked up? This is a high octane political thriller, moving at jet speeds.

I was in the book store last week and this book caught my eye as it was written by William S. Cohen who was the Secretary of Defense in President Clinton's Cabinet (that, and the vibrant mushroom cloud on the cover).

It's an interesting and realistic (albeit fiction realism)look behind the curtain of government bureaucracy during a crisis.

The story itself is original and for once it's nice that the terrorists aren't keffiyeh wearing nutjobs with an all to familiar zeal, although such does figure into the storyline to a degree.

I did feel let down by the ending however, after such destruction and lengthy investigation it just seemed to wind up to a close rather blandly.½

"Fresh Meat" by Leigh Neely for Criminal Element

Please fasten your seat belt while reading this book because it is a wild ride. All I can say is it begins with a bang and by the end all the fires are smoldering, but what happens in between will blow you away.

President Blake Oxley is headed to Texas to campaign for his reelection. All eyes are glued to GNN, the worldwide news network that’s broadcasting from Iraq where the last of the troops are leaving and boarding the USS Elkton to head home. Officially dubbed “Goodbye Day,” the big send off was the brain child of Secretary of State William Bloom, who wanted to take the military edge off of it. All of pomp and splendor is literally blown away when a small boat manned by two mysterious bearded men blows a hole in the Elkton. Now Blake and his National Security Advisor, Sean Falcone, have to decide what comes next. Add to the mix an opposing political candidate who thinks the president is soft on terrorism and you’ve got a recipe for a great political thriller.

(Read the rest at http://www.criminalelement.com/blogs/2011/11/fresh-meat-william-s-cohens-blink-o... )

i really enjoyed this book. some of the writing makes it evident that it was written by a past secretary of defense. this didn't make it more technical but had more of a ring to that it other wise would. i liked the flow and was intrigued, if nothing else because it was written by the secretary of defense. this made me more curious to see his spin on things even though it is ficticious.

The novel is fiction but Cohen is surprisingly entertaining and realistic in this work. As a former Secretary of Defense he writes a plausible scenario in this thriller. He postulates an assassination of a Defense Secretary, no names please, and our hero is called back from a lucrative Wall Street legal firm to save the day with the beautiful and exotic, and of course female, Mossad agent.

A surprisingly good read and a true page turner. Only with the overly detailed description of the Blackbird flight and the standard happy ending did the book lack in overall spy thriller completeness. It makes me want to read more spy/thriller novels by men formerly in power.

4339. Love in Black and White A Memoir of Race, Religion, and Romance, by William S. Cohen with Janet Langhart Cohen (read 13 Jul 2007) This is a memoir, told in alternate chapters till the authors marry in 1996. Some of the early events related in his life are not very compelling, tho there is much which is. She is often full of rage, no doubt rightfully so, but not really helpful to her cause--which is that people not allow race or religion to dictate how they behave to others. The account of his political career is of high interest, and one is impressed by his decency and competence as an adult--if not as a juvenile.½