Assassin by Ted BellLord Alexander Hawke: Alexander Hawke is a military contractor and owner of one of the largest weapon companies in the world. Alexander Hawke’s life started with tragedy as when he was sailing with his parents in the Caribbean, Cuban pirates sieged the ship. The pirates led by General Manso de Herraras asked for a map leading to a treasure hid by one of Hawke’s ancestor, the ruthless pirate, Blackhawke. Alex’s parents hid him in a closet with the map and they are soon killed by the pirates. As Hawke grew older, he lived with his grandfather Richard Hawke and his pet parrot Sniper. He soon joined the British Navy. Within a few years, he was one of the top pilots, flying Harrier Jets and running covert missions in hostile areas. After his decorated military career, he adjusted back into regular life and took over his grandfather’s company. Hawke soon built his grandfather’s company into a multi-million dollar defense corporation. Hawke is not married because of his commitment to the defense company and the military. He has kept many close friends he had met in his fights overseas such as Scotland Yard Detective Ambrose Congreve and Navy Seal Stokely Jones. He is very popular in the political world for he has worked with numerous figures such as the British Prime Minister and the Secretary of State. Hawke also has a 120 foot yacht called “Blackhawke” built with the most modern technology and most advanced weapons systems available. Snay bin Wazir (The Dog): Snay bin Wazir is one of the world’s most elusive and infamous terrorists. He was born in the Emirate to a diamond dealer. Throughout his childhood, he has no direction in his life until he met Yasmin. Yasmin is the daughter of the most internationally known terrorist, the Emir. Bin Wazir did not know that at the time and the Emir got him into the business of arms dealing and poaching. Bin Wazir started elephant poaching in Mozambique where he killed dozens of elephants by forcing them into landmines by shooting at them from a helicopter. Since the ivory trade was flourishing at that time, Bin Wazir became very wealthy. He moved to London, England and soon, started arms dealing. When the Americans got enough evidence on him for illegal activities, they stormed his penthouse in 1999, but found that he and his wife had been kidnapped. It turns out that the Emir kidnapped so Snay could train Arabic women to become cold-blooded killers of men in power. Snay carried out numerous bombings across the world and, recently started having his women kill American diplomats. Detective Ambrose Congreve: Ambrose Congreve is one of the closest associates and friends of Lord Alexander Hawke. Ambrose Congreve first met Hawke when he was just a teenager. Congreve was a young, shining detective in the department and he went to Alex’s to investigate the family for a string of jewelry robberies. It turned out the whole family was innocent and the butler was responsible. Congreve worked tons of cases at Scotland Yard and soon rose to the head of the department. After working there for 40 years, he finally retired and started to work for Hawke. His job for Alex is to help investigate any crimes he has to deal with or go interview person connected to his case. Hawke and him also do things with each other beyond work. They usually play a lot of golf together and Congreve takes him out to fancy dinners a lot because he wants Hawke to learn how to adjust to life outside of the military world. Also, Congreve is a very heavy user of Cuban cigars. Congreve joins Alex on every single journey on Blackhawke and runs his surveillance and interrogation department. Congreve said working for Alex was a life changing experience and has given him new perspective on his life. Stokely Jones: Stokely Jones is a retired NYPD detective and Navy Seal. He, also like Congreve, works for Alex. Jones had a rough childhood, he grew up in Harlem, New York. He lived in the world of drug dealers and gang violence. He was a troubled youth and when he was arrested enough times, the police gave him a choice, jail or the military. Jones chose the military and quickly rose through the ranks of the Navy. He became a Navy Seal where he specialized in boats and weapons. He was one of the most decorated Seals ever before he joined the NYPD. He was a Detective First Grade in the NYPD and he was a hero among his colleagues. He first met Alex Hawke when Stokely rescued Alex from a burning building that his kidnappers set on fire. Stokely eventually brought Alex’s kidnappers to justice. Now, Stokely does reconnaissance work for Alex and joins him on most of his covert operations. He is also Alex’s most trustful friend and they would each take a bullet for each other.Victoria Sweet: Victoria Sweet is an American child book author and doctor. She was one of the most educated American pediatricians for she was top of her class at Tulane. Her father was a U.S. senator for Louisiana. In 2003, at the American Embassy in London, Alex Hawke and her were attending the same party. Hawke asked her to dance and they fell in love quickly. During one of his missions in Cuba, she was kidnapped by Cuban generals and held for ransom. Hawke eventually found her and killed her kidnappers. She and Alex soon get married in the Cotswolds. But, on their wedding day, she is shot dead on the steps of the church. ttAll over the world, American diplomats are being killed by the terrorist known as the Dog. Recently, the American Ambassador to Italy was murdered by an drone when it exploded in the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy. Meanwhile, Alexander Hawke is celebrating his wedding day with his bride, Victoria Sweet. Before he knows it, she is shot dead right in front of his eyes. Soon, Hawke hits rock bottom and puts his team of Ambrose Congreve, Stokely Jones, Tommy Quick, and Ross Sutherland together to find Victoria’s killer. But, Hawke is asked by the State Department to help investigate the killings as the ambassadors from Spain, France, and Saudi Arabia also die. As they are working both cases, they find out the same man is killing the ambassadors and also hired someone to kill Victoria. Hawke and the State Department find out it is Snay bin Wazir, an internationally wanted terrorist. Bin Wazir has used his secret killing force of Arabic women to get close to the ambassadors and then kill them. He is under orders from the terrorist legend, the Emir. Bin Wazir is asked to destory America so he hires one of the world’s most dangerous scientists and some of the dangerous hitmen in the world to make a virus and kill anybody with relation to what they are planning. As Hawke and his team find Victoria’s killer, a Cuban radical, they realize that Bin Wazir is about to release his biggest weapon. From the islands of Indonesia to the grasslands of the Everglades, Hawke and Bin Wazir are stuck in a game of cat and mouse and only one will survive. tThe conflict in this book is between Alexander Hawke and Snay Bin Wazir. Bin Wazir has slowly been tearing apart Hawke’s life by killing his bride and almost having radical Pakistanis bomb his boat. Bin Wazir has no backing by anybody, not even the Emir, so he is on his own. He kills the ambassadors without leaving a trace. Bin Wazir wants to make Hawke grieve for years by taking away everything he loves, and the one day he puts his guard down, Bin Wazir will make the final move. Though, there is one person who can stop his agenda and hunt him down, Alexander Hawke. Hawke is recruited by the State Department to hunt down the terrorist who is responsible for killing the ambassadors. Hawke soon puts the pieces together and realizes Bin Wazir is responsible for not just the killings, but also trying to rip apart his life and kill him. Hawke starts to have his team investigate different sides of Bin Wazir and they will all try to attack him at once. Also, Bin Wazir sees this coming. He has studied Hawke for years. As a deadly sumo match between Hawke and Bin Wazir takes place in the Emirate, and a British airliner is bombed over the Pacific, and is quickly replaced by another jetliner owned by bin Wazir filled with smallpox. Hawke realizes that killing Bin Wazir is not just about survival and revenge, it is about saving the Western world.tAssassin was a heart-pounding thriller from frontpage to back. Ted Bell is one of the best authors I have ever read. He puts you into the eyes of the characters whether it is Hawke, Bin Wazir or Congreve. He makes you feel like you are in real life. He explains in great detial the fight between Hawke and Bin Wazir and how each one plans to take the other down. Bell does a very great job of moving his book around the world. His storyline takes the reader to Indonesia to Miami, London to Nantucket. The book is action-packed. I could not put the book down and it was a great read. Ted Bell has written many great books, but Assassin is toward the top of his list.
It’s a fun and easy read. Good for the beach or a plane ride. (I started with the 2nd in the series because I couldn’t find the 1st book.)OMG! The main character, Alex Hawke of Ted Bell’s novel has it all. Hawke is a combination of James Bond and Mitch Rapp. He’s very rich - with family money and British title of Lord – though, by the way, he also made his own money in finance. He even has a boat like Clive Cussler’s, Juan Cabrillo’s “Oregon” – and, he’s an excellent pilot. He is surrounded by interesting characters: a Shaft kind of guy (an ex-NFL player, ex-SEAL and ex-NYPD cop), a Sherlock Holmes kind of guy and, of course ( because he was hero), the New Scotland Yard, the Royal Navy and the respect and friendship of the US President.It sounds like a bit much – but it works. It start with horrendous crimes but Hawke is on the case! I’m ready for another book.
What do You think about Assassin (2005)?
Alex Hawke returns for another exciting, globe-hopping adventure. When his love, Vicky Sweet, is murdered on the steps of the church on their wedding day, Alex has little time to grieve. The American government needs his help getting to the bottom of the murders of several American diplomats. Alex and his band of merry men head for the United States following leads, with ex-SEAL, ex-cop Stokely Jones hot on the trail of Vicky’s murderer.Bell created some particularly vicious villains this time out, sumo-sized, murderous Arab scumbag Snay bin Wazir leading the pack. His minions are a team of deadly, beautiful female assassins who carry out his orders around the world. Commanded by his even scarier father-in-law, the reclusive Emir, bin Wazir sets a plan in motion that could decimate the population of not only the United States, but the world. It’s up to Alex Hawke to get to bin Wazir in time to stop the destruction.Things cruise along nicely for about the first ¾ of the book, moving the focus of the action from Alex and his team, Stoke and his pursuit of Vicky’s killer, and bin Wazir as he hatches his deadly schemes. Stoke’s part of the story wraps up far too soon, however, Stoke being the tastiest spice in the stew. The action scenes for Alex’s big showdown needed a little oomph, too, as if they were written a little too carefully rather than in the heat of excitement. The denouement also drags on a few pages longer than it should, taking a bit too much time getting to the obvious. These complaints are minor, however, and detract very little from the overall quality of the book.Ted Bell is creating a fine cast of recurring characters, and has created some truly over-the-top, yet, given the state of the world today, fairly believable bad guys. Arab terrorists may be the easiest villains to conjure, but Bell breathes life into their sick souls, and leaves a door open to more shenanigans from that quarter for future books. In all, I’d have to say that Bell’s second foray into the world of Alex Hawke was a success, and I look forward to his next adventure.
—Kara Jorges
Narrated by John Shea14 hrs and 38 minsPublisher's SummaryIn an elegant palazzo on the Grand Canal, an American ambassador's tryst turns deadly. In the seamy underbelly of London, a pub-crawling killer is on the loose. And in a storybook chapel nestled in the Cotswolds, a marriage made in heaven turns to hell on earth.Isolated incidents? Or links in a chain of events hurtling towards catastrophe? So begins Assassin, the tour de force thriller that heralds the return of every terrorist's worst nightmare: Alex Hawke.A shadowy figure known as the Dog is believed to be the ruthless terrorist who is systematically and savagely assassinating American diplomats and their families around the globe. As the deadly toll mounts inexorably, Hawke, along with former NYPD cop and Navy SEAL Stokely Jones, is called upon by the U.S. government to launch a search for the assassin behind the murders.Hawke, who "makes James Bond look like a "slovenly, dull-witted clockpuncher" (Kirkus Reviews), is soon following a trail that leads back to London in the go-go 90s, when Arab oil money fueled lavish, and sometimes fiendish, lifestyles. Other murky clues point to the Florida Keys, where a vicious killer hides behind the gates of a fabled museum, and to a remote Indonesian island where a madman tinkers with strains of a deadly virus and slyly bides his time.Hawke must call upon resources deep within himself. He must enter a race against time to stop a cataclysmic attack on America's most populous cities and avenge the inexplicable and horrific crime that has left him devastated.
—Johnsergeant
This was my first time reading Ted Bell. Wow. What a writer. The character developments were amazing. I felt like I innately knew most if not all, the characters because they were so vividly created. There were many interesting plots twists such as an all woman assassin team that is used to carry out a massive Jihad against America. I was brought into the story quickly when Hawkes wife is shot and killed on the steps of the church as they are leaving, having just been married. From their the race was on. Even though the story had multiple countries, characters and a story within a story, it was easy to follow and understand. While this was a story of good vesus evil, I found myself lauhging at some of the humours comments the characters made and shaking my head at other time to points well made.I loved how the story started in Italy, went to England, then America as well as some Islamic countries and bounced back and forth between different parts of the story while nitting all of it together seemlessly.I really enjoyed this story and it was approximately 15 hours on audio.For those that don't like stories about truly sick and evil individuals, this may not be for you. There is sex in the book but the way the other wrote about was tactful I thought - not pornographic like so many books now days.
—Dominique
