Book #9, in the John Wells series

After book # 8, I needed to take a long break from this series in fact it has been over 4 ½ years since I read “The Counterfeit”, why did I wait so long to get to “Twelve Days” ….I really had enough with problems between the US and Iran, this series was getting stale to me….I finally had to put it on my read shelf once and for all so here I am with my thoughts…..

“Twelve Days”, starts where the prequel left us. If you pick up this series here, no worries, there is a lot of information dumps for the new readers to catch up, although I recommend you read the previous installments first. This series is built around John Wells, an American intelligence operative and the main focus is a countdown to battle between the US and Iran. 

It opens with a bag. A shoulder –fired rocket brings down a passenger jet. Iran is suspected to be behind this tragedy. The fictional US president has then decided that Iran has a bomb and has ordered strikes against the country, given 12 days to come clean…but Iran doesn’t really have the bomb…. So what then… our super-human goes through a series of adventures and misadventures to save the day and at times he does entertain us.

Unfortunately, this story tends to meander way too much. A good part is essentially recaps of the previous books. It seems the author was struggling to fill the pages to give us the action we came to expect. Wells is all over the place he jumps from the Middle East, to Russia, to South Africa and to the US while battling his own government which is convinced the evidence against Iran is solid. What a conspiracy theory….12 days countdown till the last hour… can this scenario be possible? No it sounds unrealistic/unbelievable for a government to do this….or could this happen someday….or could a third party as suggested in this plot be behind this kind of conspiracy…..

I had a hard time staying with this book. It took way to long, not until half way through before the author gets going from there finally the story picks up and the plot has some spring into it. Most action scenes are bland some are captivating but nothing original comes out and things drags on and on and on…..finally Wells save the day and the world is a better place for it….haha

A book that could be ripped out of today's headlines!  What if the Russians, in an attempt to control the American Presidential election, committed some terrorist acts here, and made it look like it was done by Islamic (and other) terrorists?  Super fast moving.  Lots of action.  Good character development, with believable characters.  As believable as most of this genre.  The ending was rather rushed, I would have preferred a bit more closure.  But, it sets up the next book well.  Give it a try!

The Wolves, John Wells #10, Alex Berenson, narrated by George Guidall
When the novel begins, the reader learns that a planned invasion of Iran by the United States had been thwarted, just in time. The effort to start this war was engineered by an American, Aaron Duberman, who was married to an Israeli supermodel. He was a billionaire who owned many casinos. In order to stop Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, which he considered dangerous to the safety and security of Israel, he devised a plan to trick the United States President into invading Iran. He succeeded in convincing the President that Iran intended to smuggle a nuclear weapon into the country, but Duberman’s deception was discovered and stopped in  the 11th hour, by John Wells, a former undercover CIA agent, Senator Vinny Duto and Ellis Shafer, a CIA agent.

The very wealthy Duberman was a large contributor to the current President’s war chest, and he was therefore easily able to convince him that treachery was afoot in Iran. When his disloyalty was discovered, the President did not want his own part in the failed, illegal plan to get out; it would be political suicide for him. Hence, he attempted to protect Duberman and put out a false statement to the public about the invasion which had been canceled. As the plot played out, the reader is exposed to the hypocrisy and power of the government as it went to great lengths in its attempts to keep the truth from the public eye and to prevent anyone else from exposing it.
 
As Wells attempted to catch up with Aaron Duberman to administer his own form of justice, the reader is taken all over land and sea following him in his search for revenge. Duberman’s body guards are former Mossad agents, but they seem to be no match for Wells who carefully planned his actions. People were threatened, coerced and murdered.  However, someone eventually betrayed Wells. Who would do that? Was it friend or enemy? Before long the British, Chinese, Russians, Israelis and Americans all have a hand in this thriller which at times lost all credibility. I found that the details of excessive violence and the unnecessarily descriptive sexual encounters diminished the power of the story itself. Still, I always wondered if Wells would get his man and so I read on. The narrator did a fine job of presenting each character and event with clarity.

Book #8, in the John Wells series

This latest adventure re-assembles most of the author’s familiar cast of characters and sets them on a race against the clock. This series has taken John all over the world but this time the focus is on Turkey and Iran, where a nuclear plot may or may not be taking shape. The premise in “The Counterfeit Agent” is far from original although Mr. Berenson has given it quite a personal twist and along the way has provided us with a well-crafted thrill ride and a believable act of betrayal.

This novel’s arc takes John through a treacherous twisted world of spies. The author knows how to pace and provide a plausible plot and like the previous books his grasp of geopolitical realities and the murky politics is highly noticeable. We have all the machinations we can imagine coming from Langley and the self-serving professionals jockeying for advantage. John is getting older but still is a killing machine, which has endured torture, been wounded, was injected with poison and yet he manages to pull through to take another mission and save America from going to war. This story is action packed, mimics what we suspect is happening in the real world and is full of surprises. Although many issues are solved, the ending a cliff-hanger leaves us there to find out the resolution…so stay tuned…

Although this book is entertaining, I prefer my story not to leave doors wide open and force my hand to see the outcome. After a strong start and keeping a steady pace the unfinished ending was such a disappointment that I can say this latest was not my preferred adventure and this by far...maybe rehashing the same old theme is getting stale and I need to break free from this in order to enjoy Mr. Berenson again in the future…..