Customer Reviews

Devil's Halo

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Devil's Halo is an incredible, addictive thriller that will have you racing through its pages - especially if you're an American. The whole plot revolves around an act of sabotage and ultimate betrayal by those claiming to be America's friends. France and Russia join forces in an attempt to cripple the American defense system in one overpowering, electronic blow by taking out the GPS network of the United States (and thereby the greater part of America's capability to defend itself militarily). In this plausible future setting, NATO has crumbled as the Greater European Union has grown strong, with France and Russia pulling all its strings. Having consolidated their power over Europe, the new partners take steps to remove the only nation capable of holding them in check - with a brilliantly devious plan that the Americans will never see coming.

America's only hope lies in an American economic spy and his wife, a brilliant scientist from the Pentagon's Advanced Research Projects Agency. Terry Weston went to Moscow to reclaim a stolen movie disk, having no clue that he would soon become the sole line of defense against what would soon become known as E-Day. The stolen movie's importance lay in its encryption, which was based on the Pentagon's own stalwart encryption. Someone had decrypted it, and the CIA needed to know who, how, and why. Economic spies normally don't see a whole lot of James Bond-type action, but Weston, with his wife and little girl in imminent danger themselves, is compelled to go above and beyond the call of duty in service to his country.

The Westons have some remarkable high-tech gadgetry at their disposal that provides them with intelligence they could never have gotten the old-fashioned way. They can only stay a step ahead of the enemy for so long, however, and that is when things get really tricky. Weston finds himself cutting deals with bad guys even as he questions whom he can really trust among the good guys - there's a mole somewhere close, personally connected with his wife's military-industrial father. To make matters worse, the powers that be back home aren't inclined to listen to his dire warnings of an imminent national defense disaster. The story doesn't end with the arrival of E-Day, either; in fact, that's when things really get interesting.

The Devil's Halo is a meticulously crafted thriller that covers a lot of ground (with activity taking place across three continents as well as outer space). I can only hope the high-tech espionage and technological intrigues of the book aren't as plausible as Fox makes them sound - this book is quite realistic enough to be a little bit scary. Many pundits (and non-pundits like myself) believe a showdown of one sort or another between America and Europe is inevitable. Russia is an ally in name only, France - well, don't even get me started on France, and the issue of planetary defense has already played a major role in modern history. The specter of SDI got Gorbachev to the bargaining table with Reagan, so it's certainly conceivable that the establishment of a Space Shield by the Americans would compel the Russians and French to take drastic steps to avoid a repeat of such ignominy.

The bottom line is that The Devil's Halo isn't your run-of-the-mill spy thriller. It's more immediate, more realistic, more sophisticated, and more compelling than most other novels of its kind. It has everything I was looking for in a spy thriller for the twenty-first century.

Terry Weston is an agent of the CIA Café or Contract Agents for Economics. He is a spy in a game where there aren't a lot of guns, death or people getting badly hurt. His wife, Maria, works as a consultant to DAPRA, the Pentagon's Advanced Research Projects Agency. They have a six-year-old daughter named Ariana.

The whole terrible tragedy starts with a movie master copy being stolen. The catch - it has military-level encryption. Terry is asked to help. That is no problem. What happens after that is something that I hope only happens in this book. But with the happenings of 9/11, I can believe anything is possible. Once Terry has made the movie useless to the people who stole it, it only gets worse. Now the American government wants Terry and Maria to help them and use their daughter as leverage. The new European group, no more United Nations, wants to make sure that America doesn't control space. By doing so, our GPS systems are targeted and in making the final effort, they create a trapped-radiation event that causes an aurora called "The Devil's Halo". Why is this significant? If I told you, it would spoil the book.

I am not up on military strategy but I was able to follow "who did what to whom" and "who's on first" in Mr. Fox's book. You need to pay attention to the characters and make sure you know which side they play on. Also Mr. Fox writes with the ability to put in unexpected twists and turns making this book hard to put down. The very last twist is one I never saw coming.

The bottom line -- grab a copy and get reading to find out just how good this book is. I would especially recommend it to anyone who loves military strategy but even if that is not your genre, it is still a book that will hold your interest to the very end.

Just a glance at the news headlines today leads to all kinds of intriguing "what if" scenarios, and Chris Fox, author of "LUCI in the Sky" presents readers with a chilling "what if" in his latest suspense novel, "The Devil's Halo." Imagine if a powerful reformed European Union, newly aligned with Russia, decided to take on America's military and technological might? And imagine that this global world war were to occur in the final frontier...space.

That's the premise behind this page-turner of a thriller, where CIA contract agent Terry Weston and his equally espionnage savvy wife Mari, a PhD and consultant to the Pentagon, become involved in a battle between a newly defined Europe and the superpower USA. As the Pentagon plans to deploy a space shield and all but take control of outer space, the EU and its ruthless allies design a master plan to cripple the American military, economy and communications, and it's up to Terry and Maria to find out who is behind it, and how to stop what would become known as "E-Day," a day of worldwide infamy that made 9/11 look like a practice run.

Meanwhile, they must protect their beloved daughter, travel the world getting in and out of dangerous situations, and look with new scrutiny at friends, confidantes and loved ones they thought they could trust, because in their world, no one is who they say they are, and everyone has a secret agenda.

As Terry and Maria find themselves deeper in danger, their lives are threatened and they must save themselves before they can stop a mysterious computer virus that threatens to destroy America's entire GPS space satellite system, creating unbelievable havoc as a result. As the situation spirals out of control, Terry learns that enemies can become allies, and allies enemies, and even those closest to you can turn out to be against you.

Filled with intricate detail that proves Fox knows his subject matter well, "The Devil's Halo" reads like it was written by a superspy with inside info into the world of military technology and cutting edge communications. The dialog is right on the money, and the action never stops in this mile-a-second rollercoaster ride. Though the book's length may seem daunting at first, coming in at well over 400 pages, the story never bogs down and the pacing slows only enough to let you catch your breath before Fox gives you another round of thrills and suspense.

Terry and Maria are an exciting and sympathetic couple, and the enemies they face are believable, mainly the French and Russian government leaders determined to take down America. Yet the author does balance the story with plenty of food for thought about why America just might deserve the world's hatred, and the result is a story that is, while utterly suspenseful, totally credible.

"The Devil's Halo" kept me up all night, wanting to know what would happen next. And once I finished reading it, I wondered just how long it would be before this work of fiction would be mirrored in the news headlines. Now that's scary.

I've actually had a bit more time lately for recreational reading, and I decided to start a book I was sent by an author... The Devil's Halo by Chris Fox. It's an excellent cyber-war novel, and it's a future not hard to imagine...

Fast forward a few years into the future... The United States is one of the most despised nations in Europe (and in the rest of the world, for that matter). Their military posture is intolerable to many, and especially in terms of how they view space. The European Union has decided to include Russia for their space technology, and the French leadership of the Union wants to strike a decisive blow to America's military superiority. The plan is to launch an "electronic Pearl Harbor" that will strip America of any technological advantage. Terry Weston and his wife are sent over to Russia to recover a stolen movie file encrypted with "unbreakable" military encryption. He was an economic spy for many years, but he thought he was out of the game. A little blackmail brings him back in against his will. After recovering the movie, the "E-Day" scenario starts to heat up, and he's once again coerced into continuing the spy game. This type of life-and-death espionage isn't his forte, but he's the only asset on the ground. The plot is uncovered, but the question is whether he'll stay alive long enough to get the information back to the proper authorities.... or if they'll even listen if he does...

I enjoyed this book a lot, and on a number of levels... For one, I enjoyed the cyber-warfare angle. It's becoming a more important tool to both use and attack, and it adds a whole new element to the art of war. Next, the scenario of America as an international pariah seems to be more realistic each day. The near-future world that Fox paints in the novel isn't a stretch, and the headlines aren't that far away. And finally, this isn't necessarily a "good guys win, bad guys lose, and life goes on" story. Actions happen that have ramifications for all sides, and "winning" can also mean "losing"...

Definitely a recommended read that will keep you turning pages even as the hour grows late...

The best thrillers, in my opinion anyway, will take a premise that is plausible and realistic and then take the reader on a twisting, turning roller coaster of a ride as it hurtles through exotic locations, encounters interesting characters and periodically turns their perception of what they think is going on upside down by executing a believable twist.

Chris Fox manages to achieve all of this with The Devil's Halo, a thriller set in the world of industrial espionage. The novel begins with what appears to be a fairly routine assignment for Terry Weston as he infiltrates a clandestine meeting in Moscow. It soon becomes apparent, however, that this is just the tip of the iceberg and the real reason behind the theft of a soon to be released Hollywood blockbuster encrypted with military strength technology is much bigger than both he, and us, the readers, first thought.

Set against a political background that is only a half step away from reality, that in which Europe mistrusts America and has broken away from the traditional alliances to form a new Greater European Union presided over by France and Russia, the novel races along at a breakneck pace. Crossing three continents, Weston and his wife Maria, a brilliant scientist, find themselves unsure as to who they can trust, their every move being telegraphed ahead of them making by a mole somewhere in their own trusted inner circle.

With The Devil's Halo, Fox has crafted an eminently readable and enjoyable espionage thriller that never sags, maintaining its fast-paced momentum right up to the final chapter, and a very clever about face that I certainly didn't see coming. A must for all lovers of thrillers, this is an ideal book to pack for your summer holiday.

In the world of thriller writer Chris Fox, the perfidious French are the new villains. Once again, I guess, it's time for the U.S. Congress to pass a resolution renaming french fries "liberty fries".

Here, Terry Weston, an industrial espionage specialist on contract to the CIA, and his brilliant and beautiful DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) consultant wife, Maria, team up to counter a diabolical plot by the Machiavellian French spy master Jean-Claude Maistre and Russian strongman Sergei Maleshnekov to neutralize American GPS satellites and destroy the U.S. military's space-dependent hegemony.

THE DEVIL'S HALO benefits from a plot that is fast paced, clever, and which features a lot of nifty gadgets, nail-biting moments, and two very engaging protagonists. If I can make a cross-genre comparison, it resembles any of the recent and very entertaining 007 films starring Pierce Brosnan. Like the latter, however, this book defies plausibility and is short on character development. Since, in my fifth and sixth decades of reading, I've come to value such things - such as one will find in spy novels by John le Carre and Gerald Seymour - I'm knocking off a fifth star from THE DEVIL'S HALO when other readers wouldn't. It's a personal thing, and in no way a criticism of the author's ability to create a riveting potboiler.

I especially liked Maria's inventions, the super-miniaturized robotic spy planes, Fly and Mosquito. I'd like to think such amazing technology exists, but it likely doesn't - not yet, anyway.

The books weakest chapter is the very last, short one in which Fox wraps up the storyline with a pie-in-the-sky view of a peaceful New World that's about as naive a vision as anything I've read recently. Where are the Chinese and the Islamic fundamentalists? They must be stirring the pot somewhere. Perhaps Chris is saving them for another Weston adventure.

Note: This review is of the UK edition, which, as I understand it from communication with the author, is being slightly re-written for the US market.

You're sitting there, wondering about the book(s) that you should put on your Wish List for the upcoming holiday season. You've read Dan Brown, Michael Crichton, John Grisham, Robert Ludlum, etc. and want something along those lines. Devil's Halo, by Chris Fox, is the book to put on your list.

I was given this book by Tom "Duffbert" Duff a while ago. I had some other recreational reading to finish, and this one sat on the table. Waiting patiently for me. Once I picked it up, I couldn't put it back down. The main character, Terry Weston, is an industrial spy, a contract employee of the CIA. He gets called into duty to recover a stolen Hollywood movie, which uses the same encryption that the US uses for its GPS satellites. This is just the beginning. Shortly after that assignment, he is joined by his wife, Maria, and their six year old daughter in Russia. From there, the story really takes off. See, the US isn't looked upon favorably by the EU, specifically France and Russia. And the fact that the US controls space, and the satellites in it, doesn't sit well with the leaders of those countries. Space, they say, is not American. With the backing of France and Russia, a new world order is about to occur and the only people that have a good handle on this fact are Terry and Maria. And they have to convince the power structure in America of this fact. While trying to stay alive and determining whom they can trust. Terry and Maria are great, well written characters, resourceful, and believable. The other characters that are come into their world are equally well thought out.

This is a great read, one that works well with current attitudes toward the US and the technology that we all take for granted. Once put in that light, it was a shock to realize how we live as a result of spheres of metal that circle the globe. GPS systems for air travel, delivery of the internet, distribution of movies, radio, and television, and much more. Chris Fox has written one of the best works of fiction that I have read this year. Like I said, his characters are all well written, there are enough twists and turns to keep the suspense going, and the pacing is excellent. I really liked that he didn't give too much away at specific points in the book, and left some good twists for the very end. There were some traditional winners and losers in this book, but the end result was not what I expected. It was great that the author revealed the results of the actions of the US, France, and Russia after the "end."

What really made this book work for me was that there is so much in it that makes you believe that this could happen, the technology, the attitudes toward the US, the quotes from actual people that start some of the chapters, that make this a chilling, suspenseful read. Pick this book up, you won't be able to put it back down.

And, I would love to see another book using the same Terry and Maria Weston characters.

Terry Weston, a professor of international business ethics, moonlights as an economic spy with an off-the-books relationship with the CIA. He is hired early in Chris Fox's thriller to recover a bootlegged copy of an unreleased action movie from the Russian pirates who managed to break the digital file's military-strength encryption. His mission, dangerous enough in the first place, soon morphs into a much bigger assignment with far-reaching political implications. Weston's wife and six-year-old daughter are dragged to Europe to insure his cooperation with the U.S. government. Maria Weston is a rocket scientist who works with the Pentagon's Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Her expertise turns out to be vital to her husband's success: together the Westons investigate and attempt to sabotage Project Europa, a Franco-Russian initiative whose goal is nothing less than ending the military supremacy of the United States, and in particular undermining her interests in space.

The Devil's Halo, set in the near future, tells a complex story, impressive in its detail, from multiple points of view. Though the story belongs primarily to Terry Weston there are numerous short passages in which well-drawn walk-on characters are introduced to round out those parts of the narrative that are outside of Weston's experience. Terry and his wife share a sometimes charming camaraderie, approaching the innumerable life-threatening situations into which they are thrown with a Nick-and-Nora insouciance. Arguably more interesting than either of the Westons, however, is Fox's principal bad guy, Constantin Rodin, a "gray-haired brick" of a man who, despite his penchant for beating and killing people, manages to remain a sympathetic character.

For the most part I enjoyed The Devil's Halo, but I have some complaints. I found it difficult to suspend belief when the Westons used a rocket ship as a get-away vehicle. More importantly, the book is uneven. A page-turner in parts, the pace of the story slows to a crawl during a number of information-heavy chapters. One wishes the exposition could have been broken up into more easily digested bits. Finally, my biggest problem with the book was with the Weston's daughter Ariana, whose presence in the story, sometimes no more than an after thought, is unnecessary. Ariana's character does not ring true. She is presented as a mini spy in training, capable of enduring all manner of hardships--unfamiliar playgroups and unplanned trips abroad and treks through the sewers of Moscow and getting shot at-- without the whining and hunger and bathroom requirements you'd expect from a six-year-old. The child's excision from the book would, I think, improve it.

Despite its problems The Devil's Halo is a good read, sometimes very good. Fox paints a picture of European antipathy toward the U.S., culminating in a muted apocalypse, which is particularly interesting in the current geopolitical climate.

Debra Hamel -- author of Trying Neaira: The True Story of a Courtesan's Scandalous Life in ancient Greece (Yale University Press, 2003)

OK I have to 'fess up here. Chris Fox would have to have written an absolute dud for me to not like it. I mean, the guy's given his totally implausible super-spy family MY name. So 'The Westons' get up to some truly implausible international skulduggery, making ole 007 look like a bit of a pussy cat. And Mrs Weston is a super-physicist who's also appeared in playboy.

Well - it's not Grahame Greene (my more normal espionage territory) but I think Mr Fox must have had enormous fun crafting this book crammed full of every single espionage scenario/dilemma/thrill you could think of. A cut above Tom Clancy and (if no one's looking) a diverting entertainment.

I'm not going to even begin to try to summarise what happens in the book because I simply couldn't. Best to say EVERYTHING happens - and some more!

Right from the opening pages of this book, the reader is dragged into the story almost involuntarily. Even when the central character reveals themselves to be not quite what they seem at first, it just serves to pull you further into the scenario.

Despite there being many political thrillers with a technical spin to them, this one feels fresh and different from the start. Chris Fox manages to skillfully walk the tightrope between character development and technical wizardry. Not very many other authors are able to expand the story at a comfortable pace while stopping just shy of blinding the reader with the science that is also crucial to the plot.

Not only is it a fast-paced, edgy thriller, but with it being set in the near future, there are a few sharp observations on global relations and attitudes.

The story centers around a very successfully industrial spy, Terry Weston, and his brilliant, honest-to-God rocket scientist wife, Maria.
Terry gets pressured into doing a retrieval contract job for his father-in-law, and soon finds himself in the Eastern Europe of the near future.

The job that he finds himself on has far deeper importance than he could ever have anticipated, and the situation snowballs into one of deeper and deeper intrigue. However, along with the intrigue comes a heavy risk, and to even raise the stakes higher, Maria and their young daughter find themselves as both players and pawns in the unfolding drama. It eventually dawns on them all that it's not just their lives at stake, but the destiny of nations.

Chris Fox's first novel grabs your attention from the first paragraph, and doesn't let up until you turn the final page. I hope to see another Chris Fox novel in the shops in the very near future.

Armchair Iterviews says: If this is the caliber of writing we can expect from Chris Fox, then fire away.