Customer Reviews

Scorpion

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

 

 

Once again I have to declare my bias for a book because I know the author. Well at least this time it's not my husband, but a friend. But even if Jack Stewart and I weren't such good friends, I'd still give Scorpion five stars. It's a terrific adventure thriller that takes place in the Caribbean where I lived for ten years on a sailboat, so of course the book grabbed me right from the get go. This is Jack's first book, but certainly not the first thing that old pirate has ever written. He's an excellent short story writer and if you ever come across one of his self-published collections, you'll have a treasure, though the couple I've seen were pretty battered, having been passed along from cruising sailor to cruising sailor in the Caribbean. Anyway with my bias declared, let me get on with my report.

Bill Broxton grabs his seatbelt, cinches it tighter, as the sound of the explosion rips through the plane. Bomb is his first thought and bomb it was. He grabs the passing flight attendent, pulls her into his lap, wrestles her into the unoccupied seat next to his, helps her strap in. Then he turns toward the back of the first class section to see if Trinidad's Prime Minister Ramsingh is all right. Broxton is a DEA agent and he has been assigned the difficult job of keeping Ramsingh alive. Difficult, because Ramsingh doesn't want American help or protection in his war against the Colombian drug cartel that is flooding his country with their product, then reshipping it to the United States.

The Salazar drug cartel wants Ramsingh dead so badly, that they'll takeout a plane load of passengers along with him, if that's what they have to do to achieve their objective. However, fortunately for Ramsingh, Broxton and the rest of the passengers, the pilot is able to land the plane safely at Trinidad's Piarco Airport.

On arrival Broxton gets a cab to the American Ambassador's residence and he barely gets there with his life. Someone doesn't want him interfering. The Ambassador is an old friend and father of the girl he plans to marry. He tells the Ambassador that U.S. intelligence has found out that the international assassin known only as the Scorpion has targeted Ramsingh and that the prime minister has refused American help. It's a difficult job Broxton has, protecting someone who doesn't want protecting, and it's made all the more difficult because the Scorpion is none other than the Ambassador's daughter, the girl he loves.

SCORPION is a stay up all night thriller that I highly recommend. It's a fast, fun read and I'd say that even if I didn't know the author. As I said above, five stars from me for this one. I hope you try it and I hope you like it as much as I did.

Reviewed by Vesta Irene

Bill Broxton is a DEA agent who has been assigned the duty of protecting the Prime Minister of Trinidad Ramsing.On a flight to
Trinidad a bomb goes off.During this crisis Broxton saves Maria
Lawson.He notices that she has a blackeye.This shiner has been
given to her by her husband Sheriff Earl Lawson.Broxton is also
flying to Trinidad to ask his childhood sweetheart Dani Street to marry him.
Unknown to him Dani is really the hired assassin "The Scorpion".Shen has been responsible for several paid killings on
a worldwide basis.
Maria informs her husband Sheriff Earl Lawson that she is not
coming home.Earl flies to Trinidad to find his wife.He winds up
being a joint assassin with the Scorpion,Dani Street.
Several attempts are made to kill Prime Minister Ramsing but
Broxton saves the Prime Minister each time.The sinister force behind the assassination attempts is Attorney General George
Chandee.He is on the payroll of the Salizar drug ring.
This is a very entertaining book.It is handled by Bootleg Press.I was very pleased with their product.This book will keep
you on the edge of youe seat.Buy it and read it.

I'm from Trinidad and haven't been home for a couple years, so it was a pleasure for me to read about my country in a novel, especially a thriller. I really like the way the author caught the flavor of the place I call home and I found it kind of ironic how he changed just a little bit the name of one of our most infamous recent criminals (who met an untimely demise at the end of the hangman's noose) and used it as the name of our justice minister, who is one of the villains in the story.

But I'm getting ahead of myself, so I'll go back to the beginning where the story opens on an airplane about to land in Port of Spain. Bill Broxton is supposed protect the Prime Minister (who resembles our last PM to a T) against a drug cartel (they do operate in Trinidad). A bomb goes off, but the pilot, after a harrowing first chapter, manages to land the plane.

The drug cartel has hired the Scorpion, an international assassin, to kill the PM and Broxton is supposed to stop him. But he turns out to be a her and she's Broxton's about to be ex-girlfriend. So there you have the basic plot. The hero's girl is the bad guy, but don't fret, there is another girl waiting in the wings for Broxton, but she's got a husband who is just as ruthless as the girl scorpion and they team up, so now Broxton has his job cut out for him in this book that I couldn't put down. Lots of action, plus it takes place in Trinidad and my favorite vacation spot, Venezuela's duty free island of Margarita.

Give "Scorpion" a try, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. I know I was. Mr. Stewart gives us good characters, great dialogue, a super setting and a fantastic plot and even if he does sort of imply there's government corruption in Trinidad, well that's okay, that kind of stuff goes on everywhere, even here in my adopted country, the good old USA.

I bought this book based on others reviews and was REALLY dissapointed in the book, particularly the ending, if you can call it that. The story line is weak, the characters are non-believable and the so called ending is just plain stupid. This is not a thriller, not a nail biting read, it is just a boring book. A harrowing first chapter? Absolutely not. A stay up all night read? No, not even close. The reviewers need to read Tom Clancy, John Sandford, Robert Crais, Jeffery Deaver, Nelson DeMille, Harlan Coben, John Lescroart, Vince Flynn to get a great thriller of a read. Jack Stewart needs a long way to go to get into the same league as the above mentioned authors!

"Scorpion" is about DEA agent Bill Broxton. His assignment, protect the Prime Minister of Trinidad against evil drug smugglers who are using that country to transfer their drugs to the United States. However the international assassin called the Scorpion has been hired to kill the PM and unknown to Agent Broxton the Scorpion is none other than the woman he loves. Fortunately for him, another woman enters her life, unfortunately for him, she is married to one really bad cop named Earl. Earl and the Scorpion team up and now there is nothing between them and the PM except a determined Bill Broxton. Oh, did I forget to mention that the PM doesn't want Broxton's help? Well, he doesn't, but he's getting it anyway in this book that I couldn't quit. Just simply a fantastic, wild ride.

I agree with the one-star reviewer. What is so special about this book? I barely managed to finish it and for the first time in my life I put a book IN the box to donate to the Public Library book sale. I can't believe I spent that much money for a lousy paperback, but I chose it based on the high ratings. Don't believe them! If you really want to read it, find a used copy. There are much better storytellers out there.

Bill Broxton is a DEA agent with an impossible task. He's supposed to protect the prime minister of Trinidad from an assassin, who has been hired to kill him because he is clamping down on the drug lords that have been using his country as a vehicle to get their evil cargo into the United States. However he has two big problems. One, the PM doesn't want his help and two, the assassin happens to be Dani Stewart, the woman he wants to marry. He, of course, does not know this.

Dani is the daughter of the American Ambassador and she has been using her position to travel the world, killing for the highest bidder, but though she has a heart of steel, she has a soft spot for Broxton and doesn't want him hurt. Broxton convinces the prime minister to accept his help and Dani teams up with a rogue cop from America. Broxton and the PM go to Venezuela as the PM has to sign a treaty. Dani and her cop follow and what follows after that is an attempted assassination, a chase scene by car, then by sailboat, then another assassination attempt and so on till the thrilling climax.

This is a thriller, not much mystery here, but that was okay by me, because the book was a grabber, you know, it grabbed my attention, sucked me right in and held on for all three hundred and twenty-four pages. I will be looking for more books by Mr. Stewart in the future.

Scorpion is one of those stories where the characters (good and bad) are all interconnected and intermixed as to be improbable.

One of the book's tensions is between the a DEA analyst who is assigned to protect the PM of Trinidad, and the US Ambassador's daughter, who is a master assassin. They also happened to be best buds growing up together.

Then there is a Texas Sheriff, who is real crooked, leaves a string of dead bodies behind, flies to Trinidad to catch up to a wife he really doesn't like.

I think the book's basic idea is okay, but the characters and the pacing just didn't work for me.