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Summary: Welcome back John Corey
Review: If you have read Plum Island you will remember John Corey the droll ex NYPD cop. He is back as the narrator and hero in Nelson de Mille's latest novel. It would be wise not to read this unless you have a few days to spare as there are 700 pages and this is a book you cannot put down. John Corey is now attached to an FBI Anti-terrorist unit and the other main character is a Lybian terrorist out for revenge. Corey is still droll but he certainly knows how to detect and put himself into another man's mind. Can he stop the Lion in his game of killing and save at least some of his intended victims? Corey again falls in love with a beautiful partner who follows him into danger against her better judgment when all Corey has to go one is his intuition.
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Summary: Rooked
Review: The opening gambit of this game is as exciting as any thriller in the recent past. An airliner in distress is about to land and the tension is so well drawn that you will not be able to stop until the first 125 pages are read. But then we are teased with action sequences alternated with transcripts of meetings with people we don't need to know. The author takes time to slap those movie critics who didn't like the film made from his earlier work and generally looses focus. At the end both major players walk away from the game and declare a draw. This is a work that needs an editor, who could have maintained the thrill of the opening.
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Summary: The absolute very best!
Review: I love mysteries. But I've never, ever met a character as funny as John Corey. The plot is merely a showcase for this man. He deserved better than the woman he ended up with, but that's a man for you!
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Summary: Lions Game Roars
Review: What do you do when a 747 lands itself at JFK with all, well, almost all, lost souls aboard, over 300 dead with more to come--Be afraid, be very afraid of a vengeful Libyan hell bent for murderous mayhem. As he travels across the country in deceptive ways, John Corey, who is anything but afraid, tracks this sinister killer with the prowess of a leopard. Just how many lives can wise-cracking Corey save? And more importantly, can he save his own? I thouroughly enjoyed this newest thriller by DeMille. The dialogue popped, the transitions were smooth and a new love interest, Kate, was a sizzler.
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Summary: Four Plus Stars for this Demille Thriller
Review: The Lion's Game has a magnicifant plot with a plane arriving at JFK after being out of radio contact for more than two hours. The passengers and crew are all dead and the plane has landed on autopilot. John Corey, hero of Plum Island, is waiting with the "feds" to pick up a defecting terrorist. The only problem with the book is Corey who is so anti-establishment that he never has a straight line. His constant wisecracking gets a little tedious. The best thing about the book is John Corey who is the smartest NYPD cop working with a bunch of know-all FBI/CIA types and even though they have more information than he does to begin with, Corey is the one who is always one step ahead of "The Lion" who is a terrorist with instints so well developed that he thinks like a lion and seems impossible to stop or catch. The Lion's goal is to murder all the pilots who were involved in a secret raid over Lybia resulting in the deaths of his mother and brothers and sisters. John Corey is the one who puts together the connection between the victims allowing the chase to speed up. There is a surprise ending which will lead to a follow up sequel. I will be watching for it and have passed The Lion's Game on to my friends.
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Summary: Master of the Game
Review: Apologies to Sidney Sheldon for stealing his book title, but after reading DeMille, it seems the growing pains as an author are behind him and he seems to have found his groove, first with Plum Island, now with Lion's Game. In DeMilles earlier novels, particularly Talbot Oddessey and Gold Coast, the first 300 pages were almost painfully slow, finally rewarding the ardent reader with a splendid conclusion. He manages to keep a dizzying pace throughout the Corey series. Admittedly, I enjoyed the character of John Corey more in the first installment. He was more cutting, more humorous. Then again, that adds to the brilliance of DeMille. Too often it seems characters that carry over from novel to novel suffer a case of ADD, that they are completely unaffected by incidents seen in previous novels or even earlier in this novel. Corey should have the right to be less glib, more brooding, especially considering what Plum Island put him through. DeMille's research on Muslim faith, the attack on Libya, and the peripherals regarding Asad. He managed to make Kahlil a sympathetic character without overstepping into hero status. I guess I was disappointed in the ending, however, as everything was left wide open for a rematch. While the characters are intriguing and the evolution of Corey may continue, it really leaves DeMille in danger of putting out a highly predictable sequel with soap opera-esque cliffhangers. Is <don't want to give too much away> really dead? Will Kate become another "Bond girl" or is she there to stay? Should Corey spend a little more time in California, waiting for the Jihad to continue? So many of these questions have seemingly predictable answers, but if DeMille continues to evolve as a writer, the predictable will not be the actual.
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Summary: Great....until the end.
Review: I was so disappointed in the end of the book. We were carried to the ultimate heights throughout the entire book and then bam....it was like the air had been let out of us. After all the unpredictable moves Khalil had made and then he ended up shooting at Corey and Katie "hiding behind a rock". Get real. I think Nelson should have thought a little longer before he ended the book this way.
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Summary: DEMILLE'S THE "KING OF THE JUNGLE"
Review: In this latest of Nelson Demille's books, John Corey, of Plum Island fame, returns as an ex-NYPD homicide detective -- now on contract to the FBI's Anti Terrorist Task Force - Mideast Division. I personally could not stand John Corey's arrogance in Plum Island yet in The Lion's Game, I almost felt that it was warranted as he meets his match in Asad Khalil from Libya. The story opens with John and the rest of his FBI team waiting at JFK Airport for Trans Continental Flight #175. Supposedly, it is transporting a Libyan defector, Asad Khalil, also known as The Lion. For some reason, this flight has been in a NO-RAD situation for the past few hours meaning that there has been no radio contact between the pilot and air traffic control. When it finally lands on time, everyone breathes a sigh of relief. The events that follow will have you questioning yourself as to whether or not you ever want to fly again. Demille's attention to detail and research is once again evident as he takes the reader back in time to April 15, 1986 when the U.S. bombed Libya in retaliation for the April 5th bombing of a West Berlin disco frequented by American military. It is at this bombing, 14 years ago, that events are set in motion for "revenge". It takes awhile before the reader actually finds out just what that revenge will be but one thing is for sure, "it will not be nice". The author really gets into the heads of the two main characters, Corey and Khalil, telling the story from both points of view. Khalil is the worst kind of terrorist and never evoked one ounce of sympathy from this reader. Corey's abrasiveness and arrogance, so prevalent in Plum Island, becomes almost rewarding and gratifying in The Lion's Game as he tries to outwit Khalil in his destructive jihad. Fans of Demille will particularly enjoy his references to some of his other books within the context of this one. He casually mentions John Corey going to see John Travolta in a movie about a general's daughter; he has John Corey eating at Guilios on Mott Street (a favorite of the don in The Gold Coast); and also mentions Mrs. Ivanova's school that we all remember from The Charm School. The ending of this book obviously leaves the door open for a return visit by John Corey. I can unequivocally say that Demille is by far one of my favorite authors. This is the fifth book that I have read by him so I have a few of his other books waiting for me. My only complaint about this book is that the bookbinding is terrible. The book was falling apart by the time I reached page 200.
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Summary: 800 pages were at least 400 to many
Review: Extremely boring - you know what is going to happen from almost the very beginning: no unexpected twists and turns. Endless descriptions of minor details. A big disappointment
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful
Review: This is a great book. The Corey character is becoming one of my favorite. I do hope that he appears in future works. The ending leaves open the possibility of many things for all the major players in the novel. Nice touch by Mr. Demille, I think. This was a difficult book to put down. The alternating chapters format got on my nerves at times, simply because I was anxious to see what would happen next in the subplot that I just finished. Funny thing is, it would happen at the conclusing of the next chapter too. Highly recommended.
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