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Summary
Summary
John Wells enters new territory, as he goes underground in East Africa to track four kidnapped Americans and the Somali bandits who snatched them, in the tough, thoughtful, electrifying new novel from the #1 New York Times -bestselling author.
Four friends, recent college graduates, travel to Kenya to work at a giant refugee camp for Somalis. Two men, two women, each with their own reasons for being there. But after twelve weeks, they're ready for a break and pile into a Land Cruiser for an adventure.
They get more than they bargained for. Bandits hijack them. They wake up in a hut, hooded, bound, no food or water. Hostages. As a personal favor, John Wells is asked to try to find them, but he does so reluctantly. East Africa isn't his usual playing field. And when he arrives, he finds that the truth behind the kidnappings is far more complex than he imagined.
The clock is ticking. The White House is edging closer to an invasion of Somalia. Wells has a unique ability to go undercover, and to make things happen, but if he can't find the hostages soon, they'll be dead -- and the U.S. may be in a war it never should have begun.
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Author Notes
Alex Berenson was born on January 6, 1973. He graduated from Yale University in 1994 with degrees in history and economics. After college, he became a reporter for the Denver Post. In 1996, he became one of the first employees at TheStreet.com, the financial news website. In 1999, he became a reporter for The New York Times. While there he covered topics ranging from the occupation of Iraq to the flooding of New Orleans to the financial crimes of Bernie Madoff. He left the Times in 2010 to concentrate on writing fiction, but he occasionally contributes to the newspaper.
His first book, The Faithful Spy, won the 2007 Edgar Award for Best First Novel. His other works include The John Wells series and the nonfiction books The Number and The Prisoner.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
The chaos of East Africa and the complex realities of relief efforts in that region form the backdrop for Edgar-winner Berenson's gripping seventh thriller featuring ex-CIA agent John Wells (after 2012's The Shadow Patrol). Wells's estranged son, Evan, who views his father as "a professional vigilante at best, a war criminal at worst," calls for help after 23-year-old aid worker Gwen Murphy, a friend's sister, is kidnapped in Kenya. Murphy, who had been working in a refugee camp, was abducted with three colleagues, including the nephew of James Thompson, head of WorldCares/ChildrenFirst, the NGO running the refugee camp. Wells, who agrees to do what he can, taps an ally in the Company for assistance. Meanwhile, Al-Shabaab, an al-Qaeda affiliate based in Somalia, has infiltrated the refugee camps across the border where WorldCares is operating. Taut prose, plausible action, and plenty of plot surprises ensure another winner for this perennial bestseller. Agent: Heather Schroder, ICM. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
A tense thriller that relies equally on bravery, wit and 21st-century American firepower. A group of U.S. workers for WorldCares/ChildrenFirst are in Kenya to help Somali refugees. One day, they are kidnapped and held for ransom. The victims' families hire John Wells, an ex-CIA agent who converted to Islam in a previous novel. Wells is smart, tough and honorable, but none of that stops him from being one hell of a killer. In his first foray into Africa, he coordinates his efforts with the CIA, though not all his government contacts like or trust him. Meanwhile, the frightened hostages must endure rough treatment by captors who have problems of their own. Berenson's thorough research gives the reader vivid images of Somalia, a hostile, ungovernable land where outlaws and hyenas are near the top of the food chain. In one tense scene, a deadly 6-foot-long mamba slithers over Wells. But the drones terrify and fascinate even more, controlled from air-conditioned comfort back in the United States. What can the operator see and do to a distant enemy before returning to his comfortable home? The worst part is that the technology is believable and probably accurate. The novel also prompts but does not pose the question: How many is it acceptable to kill in order to save how few? A cynic might add "how many Africans" and "how few Americans," although the novel has no racial slant. The enemy might be anyone, anywhere in the world, caught in the sights of an airborne Reaper. Setting aside the troubling trends in warfare, though, Berenson gives readers top-notch, fast-paced excitement in a part of the world unfamiliar to many Americans. John Wells (The Faithful Spy, 2006, etc.) is a worthy hero readers can count on.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Four young Americans, volunteers in a Kenyan refugee camp overflowing with Somalis, are kidnapped. Former CIA deep-cover operative John Wells is enjoying life in the New Hampshire woods with his lady, Anne, until his estranged son implores him to go to Africa to rescue the hostages. Reluctantly, for Wells' expertise is the Middle East, the practicing Muslim heads for Africa as pressure mounts on the White House to invade Somalia. Another tragic war hangs on his success or failure. Berenson's Wells novels are reliably entertaining. This one features plenty of action and insightful contextual details about Somalia, the enormous refugee camps, Kenyan and Somali culture, and the violent, Darwinian competition between rival Somali militias. And, as always, there is the shadow of CIA Director Vinnie Duto, pulling strings in the background. This time he's on Wells' side: as the architect of drone warfare, he doesn't want boots on the ground in Somalia. Besides, he's gearing up for a Senate run. Berenson's followers will be pleased with this one.--Gaughan, Thomas Copyright 2010 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
THIS is the seventh outing for Alex Berenson's central character, John Wells, and the mileage is starting to show. Although "The Night Ranger" is skillfully engineered, its action hero feels distinctly weary. Berenson's opening scenes could come straight from the evening news. Four young Americans working at a giant refugee camp for Somalis in Dadaab, Kenya, decide to head to Lamu, an island off the coast, for a short holiday. They never arrive: kidnapped by bandits, they're taken to Somalia. Their best hope for rescue will be John Wells, the only American spy to infiltrate the high reaches of Al Qaeda. Berenson, a former New York Times reporter, won the 2007 Edgar Award for best first novel by an American author for "The Faithful Spy," his first book featuring Wells. In subsequent volumes, Wells grew into a complex and satisfying protagonist, tackling bad guys across the world's conflict zones. "The Shadow Patrol," Wells's previous appearance, sent him to Afghanistan after a suicide bomber blew up several senior C.I.A. officials, a plot inspired by an attack that actually happened in December 2009. Berenson's strength is his deep understanding of geopolitics and of the shoddy compromises it demands. Here he deftly portrays the contradictions of the international aid industry, which is just as prone to waste, corruption and egotistic empire-building as its profit-oriented rivals. The self-aggrandizing director of WorldCares/ChildrenFirst, the novel's fictional aid agency, is especially well drawn. The details of the C.I.A.'s operations and its bureaucratic infighting are also convincing, as is Wells's planning and execution of his mission. Berenson clearly has excellent contacts in the world of shadows. But the human factor is far less successful, at least where Wells is concerned. The hero of a good thriller should have a personal stake in the mission's success, but Wells's heart never seems to be in this one. Like his attachment to Islam, the faith he has adopted, his connection to the mission - a request by his estranged son, Evan, who is friendly with the sister of one of the captives - feels cursory. Gwen Murphy, the kidnapped American in question, is sexy, blond and not especially smart, enjoying casual hookups with a buff, confident colleague. In Somalia, Gwen soon becomes addicted to miraa, the local stimulant of choice, and forms a perhaps equally strong bond with Wizard, the warlord holding her and her friends hostage. Surprisingly, it is Wizard, rather than Wells, who becomes the book's most interesting character. Perhaps because he struggles with a Somali warlord's version of the worries familiar to any chief executive: how to keep the loyalty of his personnel; how to gain the maximum financial advantage from his situation without compromising his principles; how to keep control of his territory. Annoyingly, the most significant plot twist is revealed less than halfway through. And the climax comes with a queasy gore-fest as Wells slashes a Somali's neck so the "bright red arterial blood pumped out," then severs another man's spinal cord "in one vicious stroke." Like a holdover from the age of Kipling, he dispatches inconvenient natives with swift and manly blows. Yet John Wells is also very much a man for his own time, for the age of "collateral damage." Adam LeBor's latest thriller, "The Geneva Option," will be published in May.