The summer is a great time for a person to sit back, relax, and crack open a new novel. One great idea would be to start the Alex Hawke Spy Adventure Series by Ted Bell. The Hawke Series contains six action-packed thrillers about the life of British Intelligence spy Lord Alexander Hawke who “makes James Bond look like a ‘slovenly, dull-witted clock-puncher’” (Kirkus Reviews).
Hawke, a descendant of the infamous Spanish pirate Blackhawke, was born to a fairly wealthy family, his dad in the English government and his mom an American actress. But one day, while sailing in the Caribbean, seven year old Alex Hawke witnesses an act of unspeakable horror as modern-day pirates brutally murder his parents. It is a tragedy that will haunt him always, and forever shape his destiny.
The first novel in Ted Bell’s series, fittingly called Hawke, introduces Lord Alexander Hawke as a handsome, smart, strong, and heroic man. A decorated naval commander in the British Navy, Hawke now works jointly with the American and English governments in order to restore peace and justice in the world. Returning to the Caribbean on a secret mission for the American government, Hawke’s job is to find a highly experimental stealth submarine that has gone missing. She carries forty nuclear warheads and is believed to be in the hands of an unstable Cuban government just ninety miles from the American mainland. In a race against time, Hawke must locate the sub before a strike can be launched against the United States. And, after a lifetime of pain and nightmares, this mission also brings Hawke face to face with the men who slaughtered his parents. Publishers Weekly called the novel “a fast, fun read,” while The Dallas Morning News proclaimed it “a perfect summertime thriller.”
The second novel in Ted Bell’s series is Assassin, proclaimed by James Patterson to be “the most highly imaginative thriller to come along in a long while.” It starts off with the murder of Hawke’s wife Victoria on the church steps, minutes after they have gotten married, and the novel doesn’t slow down from there. A shadowy figure known as the “Dog” is believed to be the ruthless terrorist who is savagely assassinating American diplomats and their families around the world. As the deadly toll mounts, Hawke, along with his best friend, former NYPD cop and Navy SEAL Stokely Jones, is called upon by the U.S. government to launch a search for the assassin behind the murders. Talk show host Glenn Beck warns to make sure “you clear some reading time on your schedule” because “you will not be able to put Assassin down.”
Pirate, the third addition to the Hawke series, is “one heck of a good ride,” according to the Houston Chronicle. It picks up right where Assassin left off and never misses a beat. In Paris, a ruthless and powerful descendant of Napoleon forges an alliance with China to combine their growing nuclear arsenals. Now, France and China are poised to send America and the rest of the world to the brink. Alex Hawke is called upon once again to save the world from evil. But an intimate relationship with China’s top general’s daughter threatens to undermine all that he has worked for.
Ted Bell’s fourth novel in the Hawke series, Spy, starts off with a bang just like all the others as Hawke, a “larger-than-life hero” (Publishers Weekly), is captured in the middle of the jungle in the Amazon by Hezbollah cannibal terrorists. Before he escapes, Hawke learns that these men are planning a violent jihad against America and it is his job to stop them. Aware that his mission may be the country’s only hope, Hawke travels back into the jungle to destroy the lawless mastermind, Muhammad Top, who dares to threaten America’s very existence. “The New York Times Bestseller doesn’t disappoint.”- Booklist
The fifth book of the series, TSAR, contains “terrific action scenes, fiendish murders, diabolical villains, dramatic rescues and all the cool weaponry the reader could possibly hope for,” according to Publishers Weekly. Suddenly, Russia has risen back to power and is a far more ominous threat than any cold warriors could ever have thought possible. The Russians control the European economy because of their gas pipes and they have plans to make America pay for the Cold War. And, most importantly, they want to be made whole again. Should America interfere with Russia’s plans to reintegrate her rogue states, it will pay in blood. Alex Hawke is the only man, both Americans and Brits agree, who could put a stop to the madness borne inside the new Soviet Union.
In Bell’s last book of the series, Warlord, Alex Hawke has once again lost the love of his life and he has all but given up on life, living at the bottom of a rum bottle. But then he literally receives a wakeup call one late night that turns his life back on track. Someone is threatening the lives of the British Royal Family. Their only mistake is that their first target is Hawke’s childhood best friend. Hawke will do whatever he can to save those close to him and he is forced to track down a terrorist group living high in the mountains of Afghanistan. Kirkus Reviews calls Warlord “A James Bondish adventure brought up to date with Middle Eastern terrorists, Russian baddies and assorted other denizens of evil empires around the world.”
So sit back and enjoy the heat of Texas with these blazing novels.
