FANTASTIC. gripping storyline. ( )

Hezbollah has been working on its revenge plan for several years; now everything falls into place and Muhammed el-Shakib strikes out with a bold plan as embedded operatives set out to rain havoc on the United States with an attack on American soil. Their goals are to assassinate President Dellenbaugh, neutralize Dewey Andreas, and leave the nation broken and destroyed.

The pre-emptive attack against Dewey fails, but it isn’t long before New York is isolated and under attack in the streets and in the United Nations. With its surprise attacks, an emboldened Hezbollah moves on its true target . . . and it is not the nation’s president.

Can Hezbollah bring the United States to its knees? And what is the true target of the attack?

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Former Army Ranger Dewey Andreas returns in this, the ninth outing for the venerable operative. As with the other books in this political thriller series, this one works well as a standalone with sufficient backstory to bring new readers up to speed.

As with earlier stories, the unfolding narrative grabs readers from the outset and keeps those pages turning as fast as possible. Non-stop action helps build the intensity and, as the tension and suspense continually soar, the intriguing story plays out its frighteningly-realistic plot that is sure to leave readers on the edge of their seats.

With compelling, believable characters and a strong sense of place, this is a gripping, thought-provoking masterpiece.

Highly recommended. ( )

Grownups don't giggle

St. Martin's Press has recently send me a few of these Ben Coes books and I must say that for absurd paramilitary thrillers, they aren’t bad. Mr. Coes can't write women characters at all, but his big strong male hero Dewey Andreas is not an ogre and the books do not offend my excessively liberal sensibilities. The action sequences are terrific. But we are faced with really truly lame women. Fortunately, there aren't very many of them, so cringing is kept to a minimum.

Here the Batman plot of isolating Gotham is taken a lot farther. The bad guys blow up the tunnels into New York City and block the bridges. They take hostages and make impossible demands. Dewey and his buds (male and female) act with great cunning and skill to save the day.

But hey Ben: Real women don't giggle.

I received a review copy of "The Island" by Ben Coes from St. Martin's Press through NetGalley.com. ( )

4.5 stars rounded up.

I am having a difficult time reviewing this book. Since I have never read anything else written by Ben Coes, I had no preconceived notions about how this book and its characters should be written.

I like thrillers with kick-butt heroes, and yes, with this book, I did get a thriller, but the author seems to have forgotten the 'kick-butt hero' until the end of the book.

I have never read a book that affected me in this manner - it was written so effectively that I actually found myself hating a nation of people that I have no business hating. I found myself debating the eternal question, 'what would I do'?

This was one of the most graphic novels I have ever read. It was a fast read with many very short chapters. It was bloody and cruel and evil. I couldn't take my eyes off it. I can imagine this book as a movie.

The romance, well, we could have done without it. It just seemed to be filler. Totally wasted pages.

So here I remain, not sure whether to recommend this book highly or to say run far from this book as it will leave you questioning your morals and empathy.

I recommend this book to those that have a high tolerance to anything anti-American, who can read about horrors that are so cruel and left so many dead and injured, who have an imagination for the fictional parts of the book, and have a high tolerance to repetition. ( )