thrillers

Ted Bell is not exactly a household name yet, but he has quietly influenced our world. Bell is the former Vice-Chairman of the Board and World-Wide Creative Director (impressive title) of Young & Rubicam, which is one of the world's leading advertising agencies. You've seen Bell's work at some point and have seen a lot of it. You've probably even bought products because of it. Bell has now turned his hand to writing, creating out of whole cloth an instantly likable, totally engaging character named Hawke.

Hawke is Lord Alexander Hawke, a direct descendent of Blackhawke, a legendary English pirate rumored to have buried a stolen treasure on a forgotten island. It is ironic that HAWKE opens with seven-year-old Alexander witnessing the murder of his parents at the hands of modern day pirates bent on acquiring the treasure that Hawke's ancestor reputedly stole from THEIR ancestors.

Flash forward to the future. Lord Hawke is fully grown, a decorated British naval hero, and wealthy beyond imagination. He also has no memory of the terrible event that he witnessed as a child. He is experiencing flashbacks however as he finds himself in the same waters where his parents were murdered. This time though, he is on a secret mission on behalf of the U.S. government.

A top-secret Soviet stealth submarine has been stolen and appears to be in the hands of a cartel whose aim is to overthrow the Cuban government and launch a preemptive strike against the United States. And the men who are behind this plot are the same men who murdered Hawke's parents. Hawke finds himself racing against time as he attempts to neutralize the sub, forestall the overthrow of the Cuban government and, in his spare time, rescue his lady love, who has fallen into the hands of the rebels.

Bell keeps his story racing along a triple track, injecting lots of action and derring-do into the story. It's escapist literature, oh-so-wonderfully done, and appears to be the first of what will hopefully be many tales of Hawke.

HAWKE is what, in an earlier and more enlightened age, would have been called a "swashbuckler" or a "ripping yarn." What we can call it however is great, great, great. There are all sorts of terrific influences here --- there's a bit of Jules Verne, a lot of Ian Fleming, and a touch of Robert Ludlum. There's even a homage to Robert Louis Stevenson's classic KIDNAPPED around two-thirds of the way through, but if you blink you'll miss it. Don't blink. And don't miss HAWKE.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

Steve Martin's line from "Dirty, Rotten Scoundrels" is right on for this first work from Ted Bell. I could NOT put this one down until I finished it. Plotting, characterization and pace are outstanding, and the quality of the prose is remarkable for a book of this genre. There has been a real dearth in swashbuckling adventure fiction of late, due, in my opinion, to the current fascination with courtroom drama (which, being an attorney, I CANNOT understand!). "Hawke", one hopes, will bring similar books to the fore, again. I cannot say enough in praise of this one, folks; I only hope that Mr Bell is working hard at the next Alex Hawke book. This book is guaranteed to please any lover of adventure fiction.

As a young reader, I should share how I feel aboout Hawke. This novel is so fantastically thrilling that a tingle shoots up my spine only thinking of it. In a league all its own, Ted Bell's imagination sparkles and Hawke is a firecracker of a book!