Khaleel Datay's Blog - Posts Tagged "nelson-demille"

The Panther by Nelson DeMille

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Nelson DeMille once again has former New York detective John Corey tracking an international terrorist. This time its Bulus ibn al Darwish, an American born Yemeni whose aim in life is to kill as many Americans as he can before taking over as ruler of a free Yemen. Given an ultimatum to either go to Yemen or get kicked out from the FBI Anti Terrorist Task Force, Corey opts to go hunting the Panther, as al Darwish styles himself. The book sort of follows on from THE LION where Corey killed another Arab terrorist called Asad Khalil. The Lion ends where Corey's wife killed Ted Nash, a CIA operative who seemingly went rogue.
Based at the American embassy in Sana'a, Corey and his wife is part of a team consisting of the FBI, the CIA, State Intelligence and Military Intelligence. There is no love lost between the FBI and the CIA and Corey immediately takes a dislike to the CIA operative appointed to run the operation. Afraid that the CIA were using him and his wife as bait to catch the Panther, Corey was even more concerned that the CIA wanted payback for Nash's death by conveniently arranging for his death 'in action' in faraway Yemen. Corey hates the place, having been posted there previously to investigate the bombing of the USS Cole where 17 Americans were killed by an explosives laden boat.DeMille gives us a fascinating insight into modern day Yemen ruled by a despotic ruler (in the Sadam Hussein vein)still seemingly stuck in 1013 as opposed to 2013. The country is typical of whatever can go wrong, will go wrong when there is no democratic government. Warlords control the south, the government controls the north and Al Qaeda controls everything in between. Armed with not much more than some handguns and a sniper rifle, the team at least has the comfort of knowing that they can take out their target with a Predator drone strike. The only problem was the Predator drones were controlled by the CIA, who Corey knew also wanted him dead. DeMille has a winner with the John Corey character and if you love your thrillers with a bad boy hero, this is the book for you.



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