After 9/11, there came a wave of novels which had Islamic warlords and terrorists as the villains. They replaced the Russian anti heroes as the new enemies of the defender of the liberal way of life. Most of these books were pretty run of the mill. They were straight forward tales of weapons being stolen and the terrorist being hunted down like a mad dog. I was frankly tired of these books.
Then came The Lion's Game. Nelson De Mille in his first #1 New York Times best seller Plum Island(1997) had introduced the rambunctious John Corey, an ex NYPD detective who is a wise ass. The Lion's Game had Corey join the anti terrorism squad. The Lion's Game was followed up by Night Fall (Not concerned with the bodily ejaculations but the true story of a mysterious plane crash partially fictionalized), the excellent and very scary Wild Fire and the somewhat above average The Lion.
These were all excellent books, very different from one another. All had Corey as the potty mouth avenging angel who tears out the heart with the same consummate ease with which he utters the most obscene lines.
Hence I was eagerly awaiting The Panther. I should have lowered my expectations right from the time I had found out about the story line. It is a slight variation on The Lion. In Corey's world it is still 2006, Laden is alive. Corey has been send to Yemen to hunt the terrorist responsible for bombing the USS Cole back in 2001.
What made the Lion's Game such a riveting read was the plotting and the characters. Lion was an absolute delight. He was cruel and intelligent, a worthy opponent to Corey's brawn and wit. Panther should have been renamed a hyena or something. Besides the rocking opening scene he hardly gets to do anything else and is generally disliked by friends and foes alike which makes him quite a loser.
I am still going with a three because of Corey. He still remains one of the coolest characters I have read. His voice remains as trenchant as ever. No one else can possibly make terrorist hunting such a cool job.
No comments:
Post a Comment