The Lion's Game (Paperback)

Anyway, Demille's book portrays the travels of a Libyan killer, Asad Khalil, who travels about the United States, seeking to avenge the bombing raid on Libya that occurred in 1986. The book takes place in 2000. It also follows the work of the hero, John Corey, a NYPD detective, temporarily assigned to the FBI's Counterterrorism unit.

Demille is able to put the reader inside the heads of both his main characters as the story progresses. The suspense builds rapidly and the reader is locked into the story within a few pages.

Demille's writing style is excellent. He balances suspense with humor, and while parts of the story are a bit contrived, it never goes overboard in that way.

I would strongly recomment this book to anyone liking spy or detective stories, and I am looking forward to reading another of his books.

The book begins rather well with a riveting description of the bombing mission over Lybia in 1986 and proceeds downward from there. Asad Khalil, the terrorist du jour, lost his family in that bombing raid while concurrently deflowering his reluctant girlfriend in defiance of the law, religion, etc. He also murders said girlfriend at the same time to stop her from screaming in fright as the bombs drop near their rooftop love nest. This, in his twisted way of thinking, gives him one more reason to hate the vile Americans.

Swearing vengeance - and possibly to escape his own death sentence based on his tryst on the roof - Khalil vows to make the Americans pay. He receives training in the necessary skills to murder and maim from a dubious character named "Boris" and presto-chango turns from a bungling juvenile rapist into a brilliant terrorist operative who can thwart the powers that be at every turn.

From that point on there are so many twists and turns in the story it makes one sea sick. No matter how absurd the circumstances, Khalil manages to be three or four steps ahead of everybody while killing infidels left and right.

Enter John Corey complete with a new girlfriend, Kate, (what ever happened to the "love of his life" from Plum Island?) to somewhat save the day. Never mind that just about everybody is dead by the time Corey and Kate manage to figure things out.

DeMille's books up to now have been quite good. I especially liked Plum Island. Corey's quick witted character fed up with administrative overkill and bungling in that book made sense. The John Corey in "The Lion's Game" has the same "I-don't-give-a-rip" attitude, only this time his witticisms come off as juvenile and very annoying. To sum up my feelings at the end of the book - the weak come off as strong and the strong end up dead. If you like that kind of plot, you will love this one.