Customer Reviews

The Trouble With Patriots: A Novel

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
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Despite their much vaunted status as book reviewers, after I read the The Trouble With Patriots, I realized that Publisher's Weekly and Kirkus don't know anything about American tastes. Americans love humor, anytime. Why do they think so many Osama bin Laden songs popped up in the wake of 9/11? And the PW reviewer had the protagonist playing poker with American "slackers" when it was with British soldiers.

Hays' book has some problems. It moves at lightning speed and sometimes the drinking bouts are a bit much, but he keeps your nose stuck in the book and leaves you laughing out loud most of the time. I give it a big thumbs up.

"The Trouble with Patriots" is a terrific read even the third time around. There were things that I looked "over" the first couple of times, and I think that I enjoyed it even more with the third read. The main character, true to the Hays trademark, turns out to be a detective with an altruistic, yet sarcastically humorous and down-to-earth approach, who is shocked by the reality of Kuwait. This story involves the southern-bred "Duffy" as he works as an ESL teacher in Kuwait, teaching Kuwaiti and middle-eastern students English, so that they can go to the US and learn to operate Patriot missles. This is a largely unsuccessful and thankless government program with all the confusing red-tape that one would expect. Yet Duffy manages to survive in an unbelievable Kuwaiti lifstyle and life-endangering traffic. For example, Duffy, who has a heart that is easy to touch, felt for a father concerned over his teen-age daughter, and was co-erced into saving her from a life of sin. To ease his friends pain, he found himself hip deep in foreign intrigue in an unsuccessful attempt to rescue the Russian counsel's, daughter, Marina, from the high-class Kuwaiti whorehouse, barely escaping by the skin of his teeth. Another example is his reluctant listening to his very controversial and undesirable ESL teacher roommate, Kirby, who said that he was secretly investigating the whole middle-eastern/western conflict which involved a wide-spread, and seemingly outlandish cover-up, and he, too, needed Duffy's help, though Duffy managed to extricate himself. Sort of. The ending was shady and extremely dangerous, with all the very unconventional ESL teachers playing a double role in world cover-ups, as Duffy finally solves the crimes. Interestingly, it all also coincides with Kuwait's double lifestyle. Definitely a different kind of read with a sarcastic twist. Fun.

This is a very well written tongue-in-cheek novel. Humour reigns supreme, with plenty of action and a murder mystery thrown in for good measure. A real page turner, the descriptions are realistic enough to suck you in. Not for the weak,however. You can almost smell the testosterone on these pages. ...