The Lion's Game (original 2000; edition 2006)

The remarkable aspect of this book, aside from its quite inaccessible cast of characters, is that, as a pre-911 book, it points out where the prevailing thinking about terrorist attack on mainland America was off, and where it was presciently right on. First, the assumption in this book is that the attack would be by a solo daredevil, not the puppet-master running a cabal of Saudi and Egyptian dissidents that binLaden was; second, that it would arise from well-known terrorist supporters as Libya's Gaddafi, not an erstwhile unknown Saudi millionaire, and, that the attack would be on specific revenge targets, such as Ronald Reagan in this book, when the eventual 9/11 target was a generic American public who could be counted on to feel the terror most. On the other hand, the book got the concept of an airplane attack, as a further development of the Lockerbie attack, on the money. Other than this, there is not much to say about this book. It does romanticize the terrorist to the level of the Jackal mystique - invincible, ruthless and smarter than any of his hunters - making him a stark contrast to the wise-cracking-to-the-point-annoyance character of NYPD cop John Corey. Demille may have been trying to paint the terrorist as a more likeable character than that of Corey. Perhaps, post-9/11 this no longer a PC approach. Not to those who are just six degrees of separation from victims of the fateful and real attack. Based on this performance, I'm not sure if I'd read another book in this series or from this author. But something may change my mind later ... ( )

25 1/2 hours of listening time....... A crime thriller that gives an "inside the head" look at a Muslim terrorist view of the world. The main character, John Corey, is an ex-NYPD cop that has particular talents that have been inducted into the ATTF, (Anti-Terrorist Task Force) Refreshingly not PC, it takes place just prior to 9-eleven but after the Trade Center bombing, that was not successful, in 1993. It appears we, as a nation, learned nothing about fanatics. The opening of this story is gripping with an usual terriorist attack that takes place on a plane that peacefully lands itself. This is an exciting drama which switches back and forth between the omniscient view of Asad Khalil, the Libyan terrorist, and the 1st person point of view of John Corey, the cop. This story has intrigue, romance, suspense, humor etc. Even though it was written pre-911, it is still relevant.

The narrator is a pleasure to listen to. He does not use different voices to depict the characters, he uses cadence for characterization ( )

The Lion's Game by Nelson DeMille is past scary. It's horrifying. It was written pre-9/11 and is about a Libyan terrorist who is in the USA, killing all the pilots and weapon systems officers, after having killed one of them in England, who took part in the Libyan bombing of April 15, 1986. It all rings much too true, especially considering the events in Libya in the past year or so. I'm reading it, now, and am over half way through. It's one of those books you think about, even when you aren't reading it. Disclaimer: In case it gives you nightmares, you've been warned. ( )

I'm currently reading this pre-9/11 book and it is so eerie how it eludes to the Twin Towers so much.

Nelson DeMille