Hawke : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: AN ACTION FILLED READING
Review: Actor/voice performer John Shea has said, "When I read a role, I try to find something I can bring to the role and something that the role can bring to me. Something that I don't know anything about and that the character can teach me." Such in depth study and exploration of a character is obvious in his commanding reading of Ted Bell's debut action/adventure "Hawke."

Directly descended from the notorious English pirate Blackhawke, Lord Alexander Hawke knows a lot about seafaring, and a bit about skullduggery himself. As a child he witnessed a horrific scene - the brutal murder of his parents aboard their yacht. Hidden in a compartment the boy was privy to the brutality of the crime and the identity of the killers.

As an adult and one of the most decorated heroes in England, Hawke returns to the Caribbean waters where his parents were slain. He's on a secret mission for the U.S. government - find a Soviet built experimental sub carrying 40 nuclear warheads before there is mass destruction.

Is there any connection between the criminals controlling the sub and the murderers of Blackhawke's parents?

Those with a taste for seagoing adventure and international intrigue will find "Hawke" much to their liking.

- Gail Cooke

Rating:
Summary: EXPLOSIVE
Review: As a young reader, I should share how I feel aboout Hawke. This novel is so fantastically thrilling that a tingle shoots up my spine only thinking of it. In a league all its own, Ted Bell's imagination sparkles and Hawke is a firecracker of a book!

Rating:
Summary: "007th HEAVEN!!"
Review: Nobody will ever fill James Bond's shoes, but Alex Hawke is the only one who's ever even come close! I can only hope this is just the beginning of a long and exciting life for the dashing Mr. Hawke and friends...this thriller is at times both moving, funny, and even heartbreaking. And at least one or two of the characters are actually fascinating enough to someday deserve books of their own. Recommended without reservation for all ages. Good fun, good read, good book.

Rating:
Summary: A Fast-Paced Story with a Totally Engaging Protagonist
Review: Ted Bell is not exactly a household name yet, but he has quietly influenced our world. Bell is the former Vice-Chairman of the Board and World-Wide Creative Director (impressive title) of Young & Rubicam, which is one of the world's leading advertising agencies. You've seen Bell's work at some point and have seen a lot of it. You've probably even bought products because of it. Bell has now turned his hand to writing, creating out of whole cloth an instantly likable, totally engaging character named Hawke.

Hawke is Lord Alexander Hawke, a direct descendent of Blackhawke, a legendary English pirate rumored to have buried a stolen treasure on a forgotten island. It is ironic that HAWKE opens with seven-year-old Alexander witnessing the murder of his parents at the hands of modern day pirates bent on acquiring the treasure that Hawke's ancestor reputedly stole from THEIR ancestors.

Flash forward to the future. Lord Hawke is fully grown, a decorated British naval hero, and wealthy beyond imagination. He also has no memory of the terrible event that he witnessed as a child. He is experiencing flashbacks however as he finds himself in the same waters where his parents were murdered. This time though, he is on a secret mission on behalf of the U.S. government.

A top-secret Soviet stealth submarine has been stolen and appears to be in the hands of a cartel whose aim is to overthrow the Cuban government and launch a preemptive strike against the United States. And the men who are behind this plot are the same men who murdered Hawke's parents. Hawke finds himself racing against time as he attempts to neutralize the sub, forestall the overthrow of the Cuban government and, in his spare time, rescue his lady love, who has fallen into the hands of the rebels.

Bell keeps his story racing along a triple track, injecting lots of action and derring-do into the story. It's escapist literature, oh-so-wonderfully done, and appears to be the first of what will hopefully be many tales of Hawke.

HAWKE is what, in an earlier and more enlightened age, would have been called a "swashbuckler" or a "ripping yarn." What we can call it however is great, great, great. There are all sorts of terrific influences here --- there's a bit of Jules Verne, a lot of Ian Fleming, and a touch of Robert Ludlum. There's even a homage to Robert Louis Stevenson's classic KIDNAPPED around two-thirds of the way through, but if you blink you'll miss it. Don't blink. And don't miss HAWKE.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

Rating:
Summary: Hawke soars!
Review: Though not Clive Cussler, and Dirk Pitt, Alex Hawke may be the new adventure hero to watch. Obviously Bell copied Cussler's writing style, in giving us a hero with a personality much like Dirk Pitt, and a side kick a lot like Al Giordano in Ambrose Cosgrove.
Enough action, and a great plotline, involving modern day pirates, and a Cuban Coup to keep any reader interested till, as the Brits say it, "The Bitter End".
The only reason I didn't give it five stars was the authors gratuitous use of sex scenes, and blamphemies, that as a Christian, I felt was unnecessary, offensive, and kept it from being a book that I would reccomend to a young reader.
Still, all in all, a good read, and Several more books by Bell will prove him to be an heir to Cussler's Pitt.