Books Pirate: A Thriller (Hawke)
Books and Publications Average Rating:

Rating: - I wanted to like it....
I really wanted to like this book. Looking for a fun, summer, beach read--I picked this one up. It started off pretty well. Very interesting plot line, a couple of interesting characters...but then it fell flat for me. I ended up dropping it about 3/4 of the way through. Too many cliches, characters that were caricatures and a lack of understanding by the author of the military, CIA, etc. Not terrible, but not that great either.

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Rating: - Nice plot, not so well crafted
Sorry to say, but Pirate isn't very good. Bell has come up with a thrilling plot, but the narration is just awful. Maybe I am over critical but I find the narrators voice to be annoying. The narrator 'changes' depending on which character has the lead in which chapter. When following Stokely, a ghetto refugeee cardboard cutout figure, the narrator throws around vulgarities "and sh**t" and generally pitches his "voice" to mimic the inner city. When following Hawke (half English, half American) the narrator is always shaving the differences. "Rather" was used to qualify descriptions three or four times on one page of narrative.
The characters are all cardboard archetypes. Spy- conflicted, brilliant, irresistable, and talented. Cop- virtuous, dogged, refined. Big man- uneducated, wise, gruff, loyal. Villians- evil, evil, evil and evil. Prostitute- hidden heart of gold etc. under pressure from evil, but desiring to be a good guy after all.
The reality is just bizarre. One character can tell if a handgun is loaded by the weight in his palm. Jet Rangers are "big" helicopters. I guess that is small stuff, but it takes away from the 'thrilling' elements.

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Rating: - horrible
My God this was horrible. I got half way through and had to stop when it was becoming obvious that the bullets would always narrowly miss our hero, wound his sidekick in the shoulder, and kill the bad guys.
However, I loved the author's description of France:
"A demented version of Italy."

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Rating: - Hawke is at it again
I was so excited to read this book after my mother gave it an excellent reivew. However, I did not enjoy it as much as she did. I found the prior Alex Hawke books were far better than this one. It seemed to drag on forever, trying to make it exciting. An ok read, but not recommended