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Summary: Misleading Reviews
Review: Sorry I bought this book. If I want religion, I will read the Bible.
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Summary: The Jericho Sanction
Review: The first book I had read by this author 'Mission Compromised', was so interesting, and such an adventure, that when 'The Jericho Sanction' came out, I who rarely buys a hardcover book (usually paperback), had to purchase this book immediately. Once I brought it home and started reading, I could not put it down. This story is fast paced, very descriptive without slowing the story line. The thrills, close calls, and adventure were absolutely spellbinding. I highly recommend this book to any one interested in military service related fiction.
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Summary: Entertaining, intriguing, and reality-based
Review: The Jericho Sanction is the second novel written by North and Musser. It follows the New York Times' Bestseller Mission Compromised as the second book in a three-book series. (If you haven't read Mission Compromised yet, it is now out in paperback.) In The Jericho Sanction, North continues the action-packed story of Peter Newman, a Marine lieutenant colonel whose covert operation against terrorists and Saddam Hussein was betrayed by United Nations' and U.S. government bureaucrats.Newman and his wife Rachel go into hiding following an assassination attempt orchestrated by a renegade UN Deputy Secretary General with KGB ties. Although, he has been framed as an international terrorist, Newman is called out of hiding to help the US military find three soviet-era nuclear weapons that may have fallen into the hands of Saddam Hussein. When his wife is kidnapped in Israel, along with an Israeli woman, Newman teams up with the Israeli military to find them and the nuclear weapons. The events that follow bring the middle-east to the brink of nuclear war, as Israel considers a proactive nuclear strike as its necessary action of defense. Like Mission Compromised, this book is a gripping story of international intrigue, conflict, violence, betrayal and faith. It is an entertaining and intelligently written page-turner that the reader is sure to appreciate. As President Reagan's coordinator of US counter-terrorism efforts in the mid-1980's, North was involved in highly-classified covert operations, including the 1985 interception of the Achille Laura cruise ship hijackers and the bombing of Libyan terrorists' bases. As this novel was going through the finishing touches prior to publication, North was embedded with US Marines as they stormed Baghdad as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He uses his first-hand knowledge of the region, the governments, conflicts, and of US military operations to write a realistic story about the war on terrorism. This novel reveals the murderous hatred of terrorists and the faithful courage of the soldiers who oppose them. North said in an interview about the book that he spent significant time with the Israeli military in order to write accurately about it. He also says that all of the descriptions of the equipment and weaponry in The Jericho Sanction (and there are several high-tech gadgets used in it) are all "dead-on accurate." The action in this book is fast-paced and moves from scene to scene before you can blink your eyes. It lacks in-depth character development, as the characters play their roles too neatly--exactly the way you would imagine without any surprises. Even so, by reading this book, you become familiar with the caliber and commitment of those men and women of the Israeli, British, and US militaries who are unselfishly risking their lives to prevent more atrocities like the September 11th attack. The book ends with one of the three nuclear weapons missing, and the weapon may eventually find its way to the United States. North offers a glimpse of the third and final book of the trilogy. He says that the upcoming book will be about the US capabilities to deal with the nuclear threat from terrorists and from countries like Iran that may already posses nuclear weapons.
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Summary: The Jericho Sanction
Review: The Jericho Sanction was a good read. Content and themes were what I expected from a conservative who is a former USMC officer. As with most novels, the outcome was predictable. However, predictability did not take away too much from the book. It was worth the time it took to read.
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Summary: The Story Flows Like a River - Great Stuff
Review: The second book of the "Peter Newman" trilogy is several cuts above the first effort, Mission Compromised. Where that book sometimes wandered or got distracted from the plot line, this one is a true page turner which will cost you some sleep. Peter Newman and his wife Rachel, who one would have thought were murdered in a yacht explosion near the end of the first book, are alive and well and living in Jerusalem - under assumed names and in grave danger thanks to a traitorous FBI agent. General Kumulakov, a villian from the first book has also survived and re-enters the Newman's lives in a most unpleasant way. He has political aspirations to become the President of Russia, but he needs to find and eliminate the FBI traitor who has supplied him with many US secrets over the years that he was with the KGB and who knows of his involvement with the compromising of Newman's mission to Iraq when Kumulakov was Deputy Secretary General of the UN. The traitor could be a huge political liability to him.
Kumulakov believes that Newman can identify and eliminate the agent if properly motivated, so he has Rachel kidnapped. The price of her freedom is Newman's compliance. The kidnapping also snared a neighbor of Rachael's, Dyan Rotem who's husband Ze'em is a major in the Israeli Defense Forces.
The kidnapping takes place shortly after Newman agrees to accept an assignment from the head of Gen. Grisham, the head of CENTCOM to be involved with locating three nuclear war heads that Iraq had purchased from Kumulakov and an associate and which were hidden in Iraq. Not even Sadaam or his sons can find them as the man that hid them was murdered by them.
So, the story takes on the task of finding the nukes and rescuing the women and how that weaves together is fascinating stuff. This is fiction that reads a lot like what has been happening in the world. It is clear that Madeline Albright will probably not appreciate her role in the story, but the vignettes in which she appears are classic.
If the third installment improves as much as the second did, it will be well worth waiting for.
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Summary: Exciting, Useful and Realistic: A Solid Novel
Review: This is an interesting and useful novel about weapons of mass destruction, an international arms market in illegal weapons, the potential for rogue regimes to acquire extraordinarily dangerous weapons and the absolute requirement for both covert operations and preemptive actions. As an Army brat I think North is a little too Marine centric but then, as a Marine, he has to be. Additionally, North's understanding of the slow, ponderous and clumsy nature of Washington bureaucratic politics, the requirement for allies both overt and covert and the need for leaders to follow their instincts is all too accurate. (In a sense that is what a lifetime of leadership training and experience is all about--creating leaders who can determine which hunches they have to follow and which they should avoid.)
America can project a lot of power because countries like Turkey, Britain, Israel and individual people in many of other countries are willing to work with us. The morning this is not true, we will be a dramatically weaker and more vulnerable nation.
As you read in the daily papers about the level of surprise in the 17 years that Iranians have been lying about their nuclear program or the revelation that Libya was much closer to building a nuclear bomb than experts had projected, you will find the Jericho Sanction reads a little more like daily events and a little less like fiction
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Summary: Oliver North hits another homerun!!
Review: This is another great book from Oliver North. It picks up from where the first book left off. After three years in hiding and living under an asumed name Lt Col. Peter Newman's true is exposed by a traitor in the U.S. government. His wife is kidnapped and Iraq is about to get thier hands on nuclear weapons. Now Col. Newman must decided between saving his wife, or stop Irag from getting Nuclear weapons. This a a great book and hard to put down.
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Summary: An Excellent Read
Review: This novel kept me interested all the way through and I thought it was just short of a "masterpiece". I enjoyed it even more than his first book in this series, Mission Compromised. I enjoyed the "main plot", but there were a couple of well written sub plots that all came together in the final chapter. I can just imigine that life in the Middle East, during these troubled times, is very close to what is portrayed in the book. I enjoyed the parallels to present day government and kept saying that this is a work of fiction. It was refreshing to read a decent book without profanity, and yet he got his point across. The door was left open for a third book and I look forward to the next installment and adventures of LtCol Peter Newman.
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Summary: Ollie Needs an Editor
Review: This was my first romp through an Oliver North book. At 500 plus pages I found a story that was a fun read (I wouldn't call it a page turner ala Daniel Silva) but overwrought. Ollie is a little too preachy (pedantic) for my taste. A good editor could have made this book the "page turner" that other reviewers claimed it is. Since that didn't happen, the reader will have to wade through repetitions and character and factual inconsistencies to get to the story, which would have been more fun at 400 to 450 pages.
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Summary: Tough stuff!
Review: Well, North does it again. I thought this was more of a page turner than "Mission Compromised", and I hope that Ollie gives us some more.
Newman's wife gets kidnapped, and he is sent on yet another mission. Of course, it involves nukes!! You once again see this from all sides of the battle field, and it makes you want more! I liked how they have General Grisham back in this one, and Bruno Macklin as well.
In this there is a message of keeping the faith. An awesome, as well as an entertaining novel with a lot of faith. While it isn't always easy to keep the faith, North keeps the pages turning with a little blood and guts to make it very interesting! It doesn't get much better as far as military thrillers are concerned!
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