The Lion's Game [Mass Market Paperback]

Nelson DeMille (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2000

Detective John Corey, last seen in Plum Island, now faces his toughest assignment yet: the pursuit and capture of the world's most dangerous terrorist -- a young Arab known as "The Lion" who has baffled a federal task force and shows no sign of stopping in his quest for revenge against the American pilots who bombed Libya and killed his family. Filled with unrelenting suspense and surprising plot twists at every terrifying turn, THE LION'S GAME is a heartstopping race against time and one of Nelson DeMille's most riveting thrillers.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

John Corey and Asad Khalil have both lived hard-knock lives. As revealed in Nelson DeMille's monster bestseller Plum Island, the gruff, wisecracking NYPD homicide cop Corey stopped a hail of bullets--but he couldn't stop his wife from walking out on him. Asad, raised under Muammar Qaddafi's eye after his dad's murder, lost his surviving family in the 1986 bombing of Libya. He's heard the nasty rumors about his mom and the colonel, but he aims his rage at the infidels. The boy's got such a gift for terrorism he's earned the nickname "the Lion," and Boris, his vodka-sozzled, sex-addicted émigré mentor, knows precisely how to conduct a murder tour of America one step ahead of the police, the FBI, the CIA, and the ATTF (Anti-Terrorist Task Force), which combines members of all three. A pity Boris must die, but hey, he's an infidel too.

Asad pretends to defect, handcuffed to agents aboard a 747 bound for JFK, and he proves to be a worse seatmate than a siding salesman. Corey and his ATTF colleagues (most conspicuously the FBI's sexy Kate Mayfield, Corey's match in badinage and bad-guy busting) strive to halt Asad's methodical yet unpredictable bloodbath. Skillfully, DeMille alternates chapters told from Asad's and Corey's points of view. DeMille did his authenticity homework: when we're not savoring his gift for wiseacre dialogue in the Corey-Kate chapters, we're sweating alongside Asad on his ghastly, ingenious jihad.

The New York Times put DeMille's social satire on a par with Edith Wharton's, and he's great on the colliding folkways of the feuding, mutually doublecrossing crimebuster institutions. Naturally, he's on the side of the regular-guy flatfoots. "Cops sit on their asses and flip through their folders," he writes. "Feds sit on their derrieres and peruse their dossiers." And the CIA gets it in the shorts, satirically speaking. One deplores the mass murderers, but the book's real bad guys wear the priciest suits.

DeMille reportedly has a $25 million book contract. With fast, funny, absorbing thrillers like The Lion's Game, he's earned it. --Tim Appelo --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

John Corey, former NYPD Homicide detective and star of DeMille's Plum Island, is back in this breezily narrated high-octane thriller about the hunt for a Libyan terrorist who has set his sights on some very specific targets--the Americans who bombed Libya on April 15, 1986. The novel begins with a tense airport scene--a transcontinental flight from Paris is flying into New York, and no one has been able to contact the pilot via radio. On the flight is Asad Khalil, a Libyan defector who will be met by Special Contract Agent Corey, his FBI "mentor" Kate Mayfield, and the rest of the Federal Anti-Terrorist Task Force. But when the plane lands, everyone on board is dead--except Khalil, who disappears after attacking the ATTF's airport headquarters. Has he left the country? Not if John Corey's right--and we know he is, thanks to gripping third-person chapters detailing Khalil's mission alternating with Corey's easy-going first-person narration. And by making Khalil, who lost most of his family in the 1986 bombing, as much of a protagonist as Corey, DeMille adds several shades of gray to what in less skillful hands might have been cartoonishly black and white. If anything, the reader ends up rooting for the bad guy, Khalil, with his mission of vengeance, is a more complex character than John Corey, who never drops his ex-cop bravado (thus trivializing a romance that moves from first date to proposal of marriage within the few days the plot covers). But as usual, DeMille artfully constructs a compulsively readable thriller around a troubling story line, slowly developing his villain from a faceless entity into a nation's all-too-human nemesis. Agent, Nick Ellison. 500,000 first printing; major ad/promo; BOMC main selection; 12-city author tour; Time-Warner audio. (Jan.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 944 pages
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (November 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446608262
• ISBN-13: 978-0446608268
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 1.5 x 6.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (519 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #337,882 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I was born in New York City in 1943. My father was a Canadian, serving at that time with the American Navy, and my mother was a Brooklyn native, trying to figure out how to grow a Victory Garden for the war effort.

My family moved to Elmont, Long Island, New York in 1947 where my father was a house builder, and my mother was a homemaker raising four boys.
I attended Elmont public schools, played football, ran track, and was on the wrestling team. I graduated Elmont Memorial High School in 1962 and spent the summer at the beach.

I attended Hofstra University, but left before graduation to join the Army in 1966. I served three years in the United States Army as an infantry lieutenant and spent one year in Vietnam as a platoon leader with the First Cavalry Division. You'll see that I used this experience in my novels "Word of Honor" and "Up Country."

After the end of my military service, I returned to Hofstra where I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and History. I married and had two children, Lauren and Alex, and eventually divorced.

I held a series of good and bad jobs between 1970 and 1974, and in that year, for some reason I can't remember, I decided to be a writer. My first books were paperback originals, New York City police detective novels, thankfully all out of print and hard to find.

In 1978, I published my first major novel, "By the Rivers of Babylon," which was a commercial and critical success. Since then, I've written fourteen other novels and had a good time creating my characters John Corey, Ben Tyson (played by Don Johnson in the TNT movie of "Word of Honor"), foxy Emma Whitestone, Paul Brenner (played by John Travolta in the Paramount movie of "The General's Daughter"), sexy Susan Sutter, the never-say-die CIA officer Ted Nash, and my favorite villain, Asad Khalil, a misunderstood Libyan terrorist with unresolved childhood issues.

I am a member of The Authors Guild, the Mystery Writers of America (past President), American Mensa (thank God I don't have to retake that test), and I hold three honorary doctorate degrees (thank God I didn't have to study for them) from Hofstra University, Long Island University, and Dowling College.
I'm married to the love of my life, Sandy Dillingham, whom I met while I was on a publicity tour in Denver. We have a son, James, two years old, and he's keeping me young.

There's more about me on my website. Thanks for reading about me here, and I hope you enjoy my novels.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One of DeMille's better books, January 20, 2000

By 

Don Ellis (Hong Kong) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Lion's Game (Hardcover)

Nelson DeMille has written good books -- The Charm School, Word of Honor, The General's Daughter, maybe The Gold Coast -- and bad books -- Spencerville, By the Rivers of Babylon and Plum Island, which was plum awful. So I wavered a bit before buying...then they announced boarding and I bought it.

It took me 100 pages to get over the fact that this book featured John Corey from Plum Island, but once I finally put that out of my mind, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. You've got to like banter to like this book, but the dialogue was fast and clever. I thought the plot was good and I didn't have the same problems with the ending that other readers had. Under the circumstances and considering the skill of the terrorist Asad Kahlil, it was one of several plausible endings. The nearly 700-page journey was very enjoyable and I would put this in the top three of DeMille's books -- his best being The Charm School and I'll let everyone choose their own number two.

For me, DeMille is a hit-or-miss author. This one hits.

43 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Much better than I expected!, January 16, 2000

By 

Paula Aulton - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Lion's Game (Hardcover)

Forget Grisham, Baldacci and the like who have failed with their last books, pickup DeMille. He never fails. The dialogue is witty, believable and delightful. The plot moves along so swiftly I suspect a good many people have called in sick to the office just to finish this thriller. Having worked for the government I'm familiar with their incompetencies and find it refreshing that an author actually tells it like it is instead of glorifying federal law enforcement. John Corey is, of course, what everyone thinks of when you mention New York cop, cynical and a whole lot more intelligent then expected. This book, like the General's Daughter, grabs you at the beginning and does not let go. After being disappointed in Plum Island I was a little leary of reading another DeMille but this one does not disappoint, actually it's probably worth reading a second time. Not only is it a good thriller but it's funny. There were parts I had to read aloud to my spouse--calling the terrorist a 'psycho camel jockey' was priceless and just one of many of the book's amusing quips. Buy this book, you can't go wrong!

53 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't read reviews or blurbs - Read the book, January 13, 2000

By 

Peter Giordano (Williamstown, MA United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Lion's Game (Hardcover)

The best way to read a book by Nelson DeMille is to avoid all reviews or blurbs or anything that will give you even the slightest idea of the plot. After a series of excellent books he has earned my trust. Therefore when I saw he had a new book out I bought it without knowing a thing about it. Lucky for me it wasn't a diet book. And even more lucky for me, every element of the plot came as a complete surprise (and what could be better when reading a thriller?)

Even better, take a day off from work, take the phone off the hook and spend the day with a swell book. I was up until 2AM and I don't regret it.

The book is funny, exciting, and thought provoking. But I won't say more since virtually everything else would spoil the many surprises in the book.