44 of 46 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Entertaining, intriguing, and reality-based, November 13, 2003
The Jericho Sanction is the second novel written by North and Musser. It follows the New York Times' Bestseller Mission Compromised as the second book in a three-book series. (If you haven't read Mission Compromised yet, it is now out in paperback.) In The Jericho Sanction, North continues the action-packed story of Peter Newman, a Marine lieutenant colonel whose covert operation against terrorists and Saddam Hussein was betrayed by United Nations' and U.S. government bureaucrats.
Newman and his wife Rachel go into hiding following an assassination attempt orchestrated by a renegade UN Deputy Secretary General with KGB ties. Although, he has been framed as an international terrorist, Newman is called out of hiding to help the US military find three soviet-era nuclear weapons that may have fallen into the hands of Saddam Hussein.
When his wife is kidnapped in Israel, along with an Israeli woman, Newman teams up with the Israeli military to find them and the nuclear weapons. The events that follow bring the middle-east to the brink of nuclear war, as Israel considers a proactive nuclear strike as its necessary action of defense.
Like Mission Compromised, this book is a gripping story of international intrigue, conflict, violence, betrayal and faith. It is an entertaining and intelligently written page-turner that the reader is sure to appreciate.
As President Reagan's coordinator of US counter-terrorism efforts in the mid-1980's, North was involved in highly-classified covert operations, including the 1985 interception of the Achille Laura cruise ship hijackers and the bombing of Libyan terrorists' bases.
As this novel was going through the finishing touches prior to publication, North was embedded with US Marines as they stormed Baghdad as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He uses his first-hand knowledge of the region, the governments, conflicts, and of US military operations to write a realistic story about the war on terrorism. This novel reveals the murderous hatred of terrorists and the faithful courage of the soldiers who oppose them.
North said in an interview about the book that he spent significant time with the Israeli military in order to write accurately about it. He also says that all of the descriptions of the equipment and weaponry in The Jericho Sanction (and there are several high-tech gadgets used in it) are all "dead-on accurate."
The action in this book is fast-paced and moves from scene to scene before you can blink your eyes. It lacks in-depth character development, as the characters play their roles too neatly--exactly the way you would imagine without any surprises. Even so, by reading this book, you become familiar with the caliber and commitment of those men and women of the Israeli, British, and US militaries who are unselfishly risking their lives to prevent more atrocities like the September 11th attack.
The book ends with one of the three nuclear weapons missing, and the weapon may eventually find its way to the United States. North offers a glimpse of the third and final book of the trilogy. He says that the upcoming book will be about the US capabilities to deal with the nuclear threat from terrorists and from countries like Iran that may already posses nuclear weapons.
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36 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Exciting, Useful and Realistic: A Solid Novel, January 28, 2004
This is an interesting and useful novel about weapons of mass destruction, an international arms market in illegal weapons, the potential for rogue regimes to acquire extraordinarily dangerous weapons and the absolute requirement for both covert operations and preemptive actions.
As an Army brat I think North is a little too Marine centric but then, as a Marine, he has to be.
Additionally, North's understanding of the slow, ponderous and clumsy nature of Washington bureaucratic politics, the requirement for allies both overt and covert and the need for leaders to follow their instincts is all too accurate. (In a sense that is what a lifetime of leadership training and experience is all about--creating leaders who can determine which hunches they have to follow and which they should avoid.)
America can project a lot of power because countries like Turkey, Britain, Israel and individual people in many of other countries are willing to work with us. The morning this is not true, we will be a dramatically weaker and more vulnerable nation.
As you read in the daily papers about the level of surprise in the 17 years that Iranians have been lying about their nuclear program or the revelation that Libya was much closer to building a nuclear bomb than experts had projected, you will find the Jericho Sanction reads a little more like daily events and a little less like fiction
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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Better than the (good) first book, Mission Compromised, September 18, 2003
By A Customer
Excellent thriller based on more history and fact than fiction, a la Clancy. Well researched (experienced) book is a "page turner."
North just gets better with each book. No "dead spots." You'll get your money's worth. Very entertaining.
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