Thoroughly enjoyed this book featuring Alex Berenson's John Wells character. Wells, former CIA and US Ranger, is approached by the ailing Saudi King to help him secure a succession battle with his brother Prince Saeed. King Abdullah wishes to cede power to his son while his brother feels its his birthright to be king. The book starts with a terrorist attack in Bahrain on a nightclub frequented by Westerners. We are introduced to Jihadis who feel aggrieved with the Saudi monarchy repressive rule. Wells is offered millions to take the assignment and at first refuses the desperate monarch. After some cajoling by the king's brother, Prince Miteb, Wells agrees and starts following up a lead from the king that leads him to a Jihadi camp in Lebanon. All the while Wells stays in contact with his former boss at CIA headquarters who provides technical assistance like tracing cell phone numbers and using the US satellites to pinpoint the Jihadi camp. What starts out as a personal favour to the king soon escalates into a much bigger problem when the king's favourite grand-daughter is assassinated by a suicide bomber. The world gave scant attention, but when the US ambassador to the kingdom is brutally kidnapped the world is on a knife's edge. Oil prices soar, markets plummet and the US prepares for full blown war with its old ally in the Middle East. As a former journalist, Berenson has researched the situation in the Middle East meticulously and provides incisive descriptions of life in modern day Saudi Arabia. When Wells connects the Lebanese camp to former Saudi soldiers the plot really stirs as the reality dawns that the terrorist attacks could have been ordered from within the kingdom, possibly even by someone within government. Wells, a self professed Muslim, pulls out all the stops to stop a war in the centre of the Islamic world that could result in its ultimate destruction. A desperate search for the ambassador sets up a thrilling end that could come straight off the pages of tomorrow's news.
