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Any course or instruction on how to write successfully will indicate that the author should write about what he knows and/or has experienced. Mishka Ben David certainly does just that. His background includes 12 years in the Mossad (the Israeli Secret Service organization.) Ben David rose to the level of a high ranking officer during his time with the group.

Mickey Simhoni, an Israeli citizen, had served in the army and after discharge took a vacation which included a stop in Japan. He met Niki, a beautiful Japanese Canadian girl then working in Tokyo and had a short but torrid romance with her. Before anything could happen Mickey leaves for Tel Aviv to take up his normal life. There he falls in love with a girl only to see her killed in a suicide bombing. Faced with this horrific loss he becomes very open to an invitation to join the Mossad.

The training and guiding of an agent described in the novel is obviously the way it is due to Mishka Ben David’s experience with the group. Mickey is also sent on increasingly complex missions until the point where quite by accident he meets up with Niki for the second time. The romance is rekindled with Niki becoming a part of Mickey’s Mossad team in order to be with him again. Mickey faces the challenges of his job with the problem of what is more important to him; his love or succeeding as a Mossad agent with the necessity of possibly taking lives to complete an assignment.

The dark world of international espionage becomes alive for the reader with the horrible necessities of Mickey’s job becoming reality for him and for those reading the book. It is very well done and concentrating on the action described does take the reader into a world very far from the one most of us live in. Certainly, other similar novels will appeal to the reader that enjoyed this book.

9/17 Paul Lane

FINAL STOP, ALGIERS by Mishka Ben David. Peter Halban Publishers (January 26, 2017).  ISBN 978-1905559848. 429p.

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I haven’t found a thriller this dark and funny in a long time. Hanson is a TV writer who has developed many books into TV series, most notably “Bones,” based on the Kathy Reichs books. His skills with pacing are evident here as this is a real page turner.

Michael Skellig owns Oasis Limo, and he is the driver. A decorated veteran, he has hired extremely damaged vets and an illegal alien, an Afghani translator, to work for him. I haven’t seen characters this damaged in a very long time, but this is no pity party. Instead, it is a lightning fast, clever thriller interspersed with black humor that helps lighten the darkness.

Skellig is hired to drive Bismark Avilla, a skateboarding, rapping God in L.A. Skellig happens to hear voices, ghosts of the people he has killed and while waiting outside a club for Avilla, he hears a voice warning him of impending danger. He races through the club and foils a murder attempt on Avilla’s life that gets one of his bodyguards killed, and Skellig is injured.

That is just the beginning of a roller coaster ride of good cops, bad cops, gangs, torture, parrots, skateboarders and more. I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough and the laughter outweighed the violence more often than not. If you love the Dexter books by Jeff Lindsay, or are a fan of Carl Hiaasen and Tim Dorsey, take a trip out to California with Hanson. I hope this is the first book of a series but haven’t heard anything further, yet…

9/17 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

THE DRIVER by Hart Hanson. Dutton (August 8, 2017).  ISBN 978-1101986363. 336p.

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An explosive narrative about a long time married couple that experiences a rupture in their marriage lasting 25 years, then the agonizing starts when they finally get together again.

Catherine and Simon have been married for enough time to have three children and one more that didn’t make it past his first few months. They have the appearance of a very happily married couple looking forward to the rest of their lives sharing both good and bad times. Suddenly, out of the blue, Simon disappears with no trace. Searches are launched for him, police bulletins are posted and Catherine is positive that something bad has happened.

Time passes,twenty five years go by, and suddenly out of the blue Simon appears at the door of the house that they had shared and where Catherine still lives. The story of where he has been and why he left is presented in the most brilliant fashion that I have had the pleasure of reading in a long time.

The narrative of the 25 years apart is told in turn by each of them and in a manner that grabs the reader’s interest and keeps it. The manner that each has grown apart from the other is well delineated and assures that the actions and thoughts of the two become clear to the reader. An understanding of how each has acted and what has taken place in their lives is very clear in Marrs’s hands. To complete our understanding of what has motivated the two, the action swings effortlessly back and forth in time at the beginning and then at the twenty five year point.

An extremely well done novel; definitely an all-nighter in every sense of the word.

9/17 Paul Lane

WHEN YOU DISAPPEARED by John Marrs. Thomas & Mercer; Reprint edition (September 7, 2017).  ISBN 978-1611097511. 348p.

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Like your action fast and furious? Like it even more when it is authored by a veteran of action packed combat in real conflict zones. The setting of this novel is in the near future when the African continent has collapsed collectively into a near failed state loosely supervised by the U. N. We meet Slade Crawford, a veteran of nearly 20 years of front line combat, who has been falsely accused of terrorism and is fleeing to Africa to escape his captors. Slade has contracted to lead a group of settlers from the United States looking to make a new life in Africa.

The group lands in Cape Town and begins a journey to the site they intend to settle on which is to the north of South Africa with Slade in military command. The trip is filled with danger and the attacks of a group looking to prevent colonization that has already massacred other colonists looking to settle in Africa. Crawford finds a liking for the goals of the group and also attracts a pretty teenager; a girl half his age that appears to flirt with him. Slade was divorced by his wife and also lost a son just prior to being arrested for terrorism. The double whammy puts him on a path of not caring about anything but the goal of getting his settlers to their destination.

The final section of the novel puts Slade under the orders of the mysterious American Colonel Gary Kraven. The colonel feels free to issue orders to Crawford without telling him what the real situation is that Kraven is following militarily.  Slade ends up going to Nairobi in Kenya under orders from the colonel but also to rescue the pretty teenager that has been following him and was captured by the group involved in preventing African colonization. Slade is now placed in a situation of asking Col. Kraven to help him with the rescue at the price of agreeing to work for him on a full-time basis.

After spending several nights up reading Lt Col(his actual rank) Mangan’s book the reader can take a break and catch their breath while impatiently awaiting the next adventure of Slade Crawford.  A definite keeper and one to follow.

9/17 Paul Lane

INTO A DARK FRONTIER by John Mangan. Oceanview Publishing; Sew edition (September 5, 2017).  ISBN 978-1608092611. 323p.

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