Eye for an Eye

May 20, 2013
Coes’s heart-pounding fourth Dewey Andreas thriller (after 2012’s The Last Refuge) finds the ex–Delta Force member still fighting the world’s baddest bad guys and coming away bloodied but on top. Fao Bhang, China’s minister of state security, decides to have the American killed while he visits Argentina, but the mission goes awry, resulting instead in the death of someone close to Dewey. Bhang exerts diplomatic pressure to escape any official consequences for his actions, so Dewey strikes out on his own to exact revenge. The CIA and MI6 try to recruit him for their plan to terminate Bhang, but Dewey refuses, as this time it’s personal. Coes is a master at creating extended scenes of intense mayhem, and Dewey is a hero who will have patriotic readers standing in their seats cheering. An ambiguous ending leaves readers with a frightening question: will Dewey live to fight again? Agent: Nicole James, Aaron M. Priest Literary Agency.

June 15, 2013
Special Forces operative Dewey Andreas is out for vengeance after a botched assassination attempt kills the woman he loves in the latest from Coes (The Last Refuge, 2012, etc.). While on vacation with his fiancee, U.S. National Security Advisor Jessica Tanzer, in Argentina, Dewey is targeted by a Chinese hit squad. He escapes the assassin's bullet only to have it find his wife-to-be instead. In response, Dewey uses his training as a skilled Delta operator to hunt down the man behind the failed hit, China's minister of state security. The carnage caused by Dewey's quest for vengeance stretches across Europe and into Asia. Depth is added as the storyline fluctuates between bloody shootouts among multinational paramilitary operators and tense political negotiations with heads of state, covert operations directors and numerous ambassadors. A sense of realism emerges when Dewey's mission is complicated by America's primary lender and source of future financial security, China. The threat of Islamist radicals pales in comparison to the threat of the People's Bank of China, which is likened to "a poisonous snake" lurking in tall grass as it grows stronger. At a time when America's exceptionalism is hotly contested, this is a fine example of an exceptional American hero story.

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June 1, 2013

In Coles's fourth novel featuring superagent Dewey Andreas (The Last Refuge; Coup d'Etat; Power Down), the bodies start piling up almost immediately as Andreas focuses on a new enemy: China. The Chinese are angered when Andreas kills one of their top agents, and they plot revenge. When their murderous actions hit close to home, Andreas takes matters into his own capable and deadly hands. His target is Fao Bhang, the head of China's state security. Andreas does not take prisoners, ask permission, or read people their rights--he simply goes for the jugular. VERDICT It's very simple--those who liked the author's previous action-filled and over-the-top thrillers will like this new title, while new readers who are able to suspend credulity will enjoy the slam-bang blood-soaked action. Andreas is about as subtle as a sledgehammer, and some will think the story of one man's vendetta against China implausible. It is, but novels featuring Dewey Andreas are best counted among life's guilty pleasures. [See Prepub Alert, 1/14/13.]--Robert Conroy, Warren, MI

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from June 1, 2013
Coes delivers his best effort to date in this thriller starring Dewey Andreas, a maverick agent whom the alphabet agencies rely on to get the tough jobs done. After helping unmask an Israeli traitor secretly working for the Chinese, Andreas becomes a target, with the head of China's state security launching a full-out campaign against him and vowing not to stop until the American is a stain on the ground. The fight becomes personal for Andreas, and he will exact revenge even if it means going rogue from his usual allies to get the job done. The bullets fly, and the death toll is huge, but in the midst of all the chaos, there is a hero the reader truly cares about. The story line would have made a perfect setup for a season of the television series 24, what with terrorists on the loose and a Jack Bauer character out to save the world and extract a pound of flesh that is undeniably owed him. Highly recommended for fans of full-throttle action and writing that fits its subject perfectly. The ending clearly paves the way for another Andreas novel, and it can't come fast enough.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)