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Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... McMinnville Public Library | Bell, T. | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Mount Angel Public Library | BELL, T. Alex Hawke #1 | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Newberg Public Library | FICTION BELL | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Silver Falls Library | FIC BELL | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
"Hawke is a fast-paced adventure...truly an exciting read," says Nelson DeMille. "Rich, spellbinding, and absorbing, Hawke is packed with surprises," raves Clive Cussler. Readers beware, this stunning, high-caliber thriller is not recommended for the faint of heart.Lord Alexander Hawke is a direct descendant of the legendary English pirate Blackhawke and highly skilled in the cutthroat's deadly ways himself. While still a boy, on a voyage to the Caribbean, Alex Hawke witnesses an act of unspeakable horror. Hidden in a secret compartment on his father's yacht, Alex sees his parents brutally murdered by three modern-day pirates. It is an event that will haunt him for the remainder of his life. Now, fully grown and one of England's most decorated naval heroes, Hawke is back in the same Caribbean waters on a secret mission for the American government. A highly experimental stealth submarine, built by the Soviets just before the end of the Cold War, is missing. She carries forty nuclear warheads and is believed to be in the hands of a very unstable government just ninety miles from the American mainland. Hawke is in a race against time. His mission: Find the deadly sub before a preemptive strike can be launched against the U.S., and confront the murderous men behind the personal nightmare that haunts him before they find him first.Featuring breathtaking action, international intrigue, and a hero worthy of the very finest adventure fiction, Hawke heralds the exciting debut of a bold new talent.
Author Notes
Ted Bell received a B.A. in English from Randolph-Macon College in Virginia. Before becoming a full-time writer in 2001, he was president and chief creative officer of the Leo Burnett Company. He was later named vice-chairman of the board and world-wide creative director of Young and Rubicam, one of the world's largest advertising agencies. He won numerous awards for his work including Clios and Cannes Gold Lions. At age 25 he sold his first Hollywood screenplay, Screamathon, to producers Joel Michaels and Garth Drabinsky. He wrote the Alex Hawke series and the Nick McIver Adventures through Time series. He made The New York Times Best Seller List with his title Warriors.
On January 20, 2023, he died of an intracerebral hemorrhage at the age of 76.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Bell's action-adventure novel actively courts comparisons to Ian Fleming's James Bond novels, even touching down on Thunderball Atoll in the Bahamas, in a nod to Fleming's 1961 Thunderball. Bell's hero is Alex Hawke, a jet-set business mogul who does "highly secret freelance work for the governments of the United States and Britain." Thirty years before the story begins, seven-year-old Alex Hawke watches from a hiding place as his mother and father are slaughtered by three modern-day pirates. The adult Hawke, descendant of the famous English pirate, Blackhawke, owns the finest of the world's goods, makes love to the most beautiful women and defeats the world's most heinous villains. He is, in short, a cartoon. When his friend and ex-lover, Consuelo de los Reyes, the beautiful and foul-mouthed secretary of state, asks him to save America with a difficult and exceedingly dangerous piece of derring-do, he leaps at the chance. The assignment involves a cabal of Cubans who have deposed Castro, bought themselves a secret submarine from the Russians and are preparing to launch 40 nuclear missiles at the United States. Hawke assembles an arsenal of cool weapons and exotic machinery, calls in a squad of deadly ex-SEAL anti-terrorist pals and saves the world. Along the way, he avenges his parents' brutal murder. Bell's first effort, Nick of Time, was a well-received pirate book for boys. This novel is a pirate book for adult boys. It's a fast, fun read, but the elaborately constructed homage to the master-Fleming and the inimitable Bond-tips over into unintentional parody more often than it should. (June 3) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Not-so-secret agent Alexander Hawke makes James Bond look like a slovenly, dull-witted clock-puncher as he saves the world from Cuban coup plotters, post-Soviet arms dealers, Middle Eastern germ warfare, nuclear destruction, and bad manners. Lord Hawke, descendant of the pirate Blackhawke, is impossibly wealthy, handsome, clever, cunning, brave. Concealed weapon-sensing parrot, Sniper, upon his shoulder, he's the distillate of generations of Hawke perfection. But, sadly, Hawke's life is not all light and glory. A childhood trauma casts a darkness others don't see in the glare of his radiance. He witnessed the murder of his impossibly beautiful, fabulously wealthy, and inconceivably brave parents aboard the family yacht while on a treasure hunt in the Bahamas. He lacks conscious memory of that day but, damn the luck, it comes back to him when he returns to the Caribbean while trying to thwart a plot by two cartoonish Russian arms peddlers to put the ultimate nuclear stealth sub into the hands of Fidel Castro. Despite the deep soul wound, Hawke can see beauty in others while saving the world. Yes, there is a woman: "In a world besieged by dirty little wars and full of evil, dangerous people, he was doing his duty. Work he felt was vitally important. At the same time, he'd managed to re-build his family fortune and fund causes and charities he believed in. And, at last he'd met a beautiful woman he couldn't get off his mind, Dr. Victoria Sweet." Bell's first is so over the top--in a genre where hyperbole, bombast, and implausibility are the norm--as to seem a spoof. The most compelling reason to push to the end of this jerkin-ripper is to see whether Hawke will swing from a chandelier during swordplay. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
In the same vein as James Bond and Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt, Alexander Hawke is a daring, dashing, and devastatingly handsome billionaire adventurer who occasionally does "favors" for the American and British governments. A descendent of the infamous English pirate Blackhawke, seven-year-old Hawke watched modern-day pirates murder his mother and father aboard their yacht in the Caribbean. Now 30 years later, and with an extensive military and counterintelligence background, Hawke agrees to help out an ex-girlfriend (the U.S. secretary of state) and search for a missing experimental Russian stealth submarine armed with 40 nuclear missiles built at the end of the cold war. Unfortunately for the U.S., the submarine has fallen into the hands of three diabolical brothers who have overthrown Castro and taken control of the Cuban government. And surprise, surprise--the brothers are the same erstwhile pirates who murdered Hawke's parents. Predictable and formulaic, but Clancy and Cussler fans will gobble this testosterone fest down whole and come back looking for more. MichaelGannon.
Library Journal Review
This outstanding debut by the former chair of the Young & Rubicam advertising agency is one of those rare novels that more than lives up to the usual PR puffery and author blurbs. Alexander Hawke, a descendant of pirates, is a British billionaire, a former Royal Navy commander, and a man frequently called on by the U.S. and British governments to carry out covert assignments. Although he has repressed the memory, when he was seven he witnessed the murder of his parents aboard their yacht in the Caribbean. Now he's back in the region in search of two things-a boomerang-shaped stealth sub carrying 40 long-range ballistic missiles and a treasure buried by his legendary ancestor, Blackhawke. Before he's through, however, Hawke will confront the three men who killed his parents, help lead a raid to rescue the woman he loves, and thwart a preemptive strike against the United States. This rip-roaring tale is made entirely believable through convincing detail, with a grand hero in Hawke. Various flawlessly developed story lines contribute to the high-octane pace, and the fully developed characters are delineated through the nuances of voice. In short, this is a commercial blockbuster packed with pleasure. Highly recommended for all public libraries. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 2/15/03.]-Ronnie H. Terpening, Univ. of Arizona, Tucson (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.