Parts of the story were drawn out and then the ending was rushed.Khalil Asad returns to New York to finish what he started 3 years ago. He kills everyone he meets and attempts to kill Kate Mayfield, John Corey's wife. She recovers and John is under protection of the FBI and the ATTF. The whole story takes place in one week and the story goes between Khalil and Johnleading up to when they meet at the end. Which is the greatest Cat-n-Mouse chase story of all times? It’s surely the one that took place between a cat named Tom and a mouse named Jerry. I loved watching them when I was a kid, and today, when i can safely say that I have grown up, a little bit, I still enjoy their antics. But, would I have enjoyed them had their show ran for say 90 mins? No, then it would have turned boring. Definitely I wouldn’t have liked watching Tom create booby traps, one after another for jerry to fall into and Jerry annoying Tom and escaping time and time again, with no plot whatsoever and within a same setting for a period of 90 mins. No wonder their shows had a running time of max 10 mins and always featured a different setting and a new storyline with the central theme of Cat-n-mouse game intact.THE LION by Nelson DeMille was a similar story, a Cat-n-mouse chase with some add-ons like high male testosterone infused in both the Cat(Asad Khalil) and Mouse(John Corey). Everyone was out there to show how macho they are, how bad mouthed they can be. Corey was out there to prove that he is a knight in the shining armor, whose injured wife won’t come in front of him in his quest for duty. Who, like every typical American hero, must have a dumb guy-cum-political aspirant-cum-no gooder as his boss. Who must have a personal animosity with the bad guy, the bad guy must kill someone close to him, and the book being a typical DeMille book must be HUGE. Yess, this was NDM’s version of Tom and Jerry garnished with a lot of macho antics, dead bodies, Libya-Al Qaeda-Terrorist, Islamic fanaticism, and no plot whatsoever. But, then what made this book get 3 stars? Well, beside all the faults this book had one big point in its favor. Its pace. Frankly I am not a big fan of the John Le Carre type of spy fiction, where everything happens too slow and the book is itself written in a style which shouts of pseudo-literarism. I need and love speed in thrillers, and this book had plenty. Yess although at times the macho-ness, the dialogues, the characters seemed over the top, but the pace made me race through those areas without letting me devote much time upon the faults that existed. In a way, this is a clever book without much plot but with a lot of pace which after finishing it leaves the reader like me, with a peculiar sense of satisfaction from reading a very mediocre spy thriller.
What do You think about Der Löwe (2011)?
#5 in the John Corey series. Ex-NYPD homicide detective has now been a Federal agent since series entry #2 (The Lion's Game (2000)) but in this 2010 entry disparaging the feds at the expense of the NYPD has gotten to be an old shtick. I love the iconoclastic character by author DeMille needs some new material.John Corey series - Asad Khalil, the notorious Libyan terrorist otherwise known as "The Lion," has returned to America to make good on his threats and take care of unfinished business. John Corey, former NYPD Homicide detective and special agent for the Anti-Terrorist Task Force, will stop at nothing to find and kill Khahil. Short on action considering length of book.
—Christel
The only thing to like about this DeMille book is Corey's snarky attitude and sharp humor. Maybe it's because I just don't like the blood-thirsty terrorist plot-lines, but this is just that and nothing more. It's isn't interesting, has poorly developed characters, and no action. Just conversation after conversation. I finished it, but if you haven't picked it up yet my advice: move on to some of the earlier works by DeMille.
—Faith
