The Last Refuge

by Ben Coes,St. Martin's Press, July 2012

..If you like the novels of Tom Clancy, Vince Flynn or Brad Thor check out this series I think you’ll enjoy. 

This book is the third in the Dewey Andreas series but the first I’ve read.  Andreas is a former Seal and Delta (how is that possible?) who sets out to meet an Israeli officer who has saved his life on a previous mission.  The Israeli is captured on the streets of NYC by the Iranian secret service before he can share with Andreas the fact that Iran has a functioning nuclear weapon aimed at Tel Aviv.  Andreas decides to free the Israeli and at the same time steal the nuke (love it!).  He must operate independently because the US currently has naïve leadership (a common theme in these stories) and he does not want to provoke Iran into a premature attack.

The action moves to the Mideast where Andreas counting on help from a small number of friends goes native into Iran.  The scenes alternate between the torture of the Israeli in the high security prison in Teheran and Andreas organizing the plan to switch out a fake bomb for the real one.  Let me stop the plot description here and just say the action is nonstop and our hero doesn’t fail in any key aspect of the challenge.

I am addicted to spy thrillers like this one.  I read them all the while thinking that the plotting is unrealistic (let me hire someone to make a fake 10 ton nuclear bomb), the action scenes fantastic (Andreas jumps thru the glass door, up onto the balcony, over the railing and as he falls pivots to fire back at the pursuer) and the heroes inevitably successful.  The characters in this story are fleshed out a bit and Andreas as a hero is likeable.   If you like the novels of Tom Clancy, Vince Flynn or Brad Thor check out this series I think you’ll enjoy. 

I read an ARC provided by the publisher