Ted Bell

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About Ted Bell
Overkill, my 10th spy thriller in the celebrated Lord Alexander Hawke series (HarperCollins) was published on May 1, 2018. It is on the New York Times Bestseller list at #14. I am currently working in the 11th Alex Hawke novel. Stay tuned for updates and the pub date.
In Overkill, Hawke’s limits are tested in a do-or-die showdown with his erstwhile friend, now lethal enemy, Vladimir Putin. In a battle that spans the globe from Siberia to Switzerland, from L.A. to London, from the Bahamas to Bermuda, Hawke races to find and rescue his young son, Alexei, who mysteriously disappears in a horrific Christmas Day ski gondola accident in St. Moritz. All the while engaging Putin in a Battle Royale to prevent the unstable Russian president from realizing his “Goldfinger” dreams of an armed invasion of Switzerland. This, by way of stealing all the gold buried in the Swiss Alps to finance his dreams or returning to power atop the Kremlin!
Along the way, Hawke encounters a man who will forever redefine what it means to be a villain in an
Alex Hawke spy thriller. A man named Mr. Smith, who, if looks could kill, resembles no one so much as the late actor Sam Shepard. The resemblance stops there. Smith, a former rodeo star out of West Texas, has a checkered past. After serving two tours in Afghanistan as an Army Ranger out of Ft. Bragg, the winner of two Silver Stars is recruited by CIA and posted to Berlin as a political assassin. There he marries a Russian woman whose death under mysterious circumstances results in Smith’s abrupt departure from the Agency—the circumstances involve decapitation. And, he tells the presiding judge, “It wasn’t any crime of passion your honor. I’ve been wanting to kill me a woman ever since I can remember.” This then, is the psychopath Putin hires sics on Hawke, and prevent him from interfering in any way with his dreams of glory. Mr. Smith will be haunting your nightmares long after you close the book on him…
I have always had an itch to travel the world—after graduating college and a brief but dull desk job in the family bank, I moved to Europe to become a writer and bounced around Italy and France, and Rome, where I was cast as a Cinecitta Cowboy in a spaghetti western that was ultimately never made. Eventually I made it back to the States and New York, starting a career in advertising, hitting my pinnacle as Vice-Chairman of the Board and World-Wide Creative Director of Young & Rubicam, one of the world's largest advertising agencies. But a call to become a writer, borne in the third grade when I was 8 years old, had never waned. I left my 'Madman' career in 2001, trading New York for Palm Beach, where I focused on writing fiction. Two years later I published my debut espionage thriller, Hawke. Since then, nine books in the series have landed on the bestseller list, not to mention my two New York Times Bestselling young adult adventure novels Nick of Time and The Time Pirate (St. Martin's Press).
I fill my very cinematic thrillers with realistic details and infuses my characters with a panache and humor. My extensive global travels have given me a perspective that I alone can provide readers. In 2011, I was elected a Visiting Scholar at Cambridge University, UK, completing my studies at Cambridge's Department of political science and International Studies (POLIS). I was also elected to the position of Writer-In-Residence, Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge University—a setting known for its connections to Intelligence community, including my sponsor, Sir Richard Dearlove, Master at Pembroke College and former Chief of Secret Intelligence Service, better known as MI6.
In addition to my time in the UK, I have spent time in Russia researching my novels; despite almost being “disappeared” while waiting for a flight in the first-class lounge in the Moscow airport. But setting and characterization aren’t the only strengths of the Hawke series—I am exhaustive in my research and goal to provide realistic military details for my readers.
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Titles By Ted Bell
December 8, 1941, Washington, D.C.
The new Chinese ambassador to the United States, Tiger Tang, meets with President Roosevelt one day after the attack on Pearl Harbor. For the next four years, China and the U.S. will be wartime allies, but the charming, sophisticated ambassador may be playing his own treacherous game.
Today, The Bahamas
Alex Hawke is recovering from serious injuries incurred during a battle with a malevolent enemy. His recuperation is interrupted by a desperate call from the Queen. Her favorite grandson has disappeared in the Bahamas. Lord Hawke is the only man she trusts with a mission this sensitive. All she knows is that the young prince was last seen at the exclusive Dragonfire nightclub owned by the nefarious Tang brothers, grandsons of Ambassador Tiger Tang.
On a yacht in the warm blue waters of the Caribbean, a little boy named Alex Hawke, hidden in a secret compartment, witnesses the brutal murder of his parents at the hands of two strange men. The only survivors of the attack, Alex and his father’s black parrot, Sniper, are sent back to the island off the coast of England where his family had lived and where generations of Hawkes have called home ever since their pirate forebear, the legendary Blackhawke, was betrayed and hung by the British.
Decades later, the boy, now a grown man and a naval hero, returns to the Caribbean on a special mission for the United States and Great Britain. His task is to find a secret Stealth submarine that has mysteriously disappeared and the men responsible for the theft. Once there, however, Hawke begins to have flashbacks about the night of his parents’ murder. He has also brought along with him a piece of paper his father had pressed into his hands before locking him into the compartment—an ancient treasure map.
Hawke begins to puzzle through his own tragic history and the meaning of the map, even as the search for the submarine intensifies. As Hawke nears the end of his search for his parents’ killers and the men who stole the submarine, he begins to realize that they are one and the same and that to the victor not only will go unimaginable military power but also one of the greatest treasures in the world.
The latest action-packed thriller from New York Times bestselling author Ted Bell pits counterspy Alex Hawke against Russian president Vladimir Putin in a daring, exhilarating mission to rescue Hawke’s kidnapped son—and prevent a Soviet invasion of Switzerland
On a ski vacation in the Swiss Alps high above St. Moritz, Alex Hawke and his young son, Alexei, are thrust into danger when the tram carrying them to the top of the mountain bursts into flame, separating the two. Before he can reach Alexei, the boy is snatched from the burning cable car by unknown assailants in a helicopter.
Meanwhile, high above the skies of France, Vladimir Putin is aboard his presidential jet after escaping a bloodless coup in the Kremlin. When two flight attendants collapse and slip into unconsciousness, the Russian leader realizes the danger isn’t over. Killing the pilots, he grabs a parachute, steps out of the plane . . . and disappears.
Hawke has led his share of dangerous assignments, but none with stakes this high. To save his son, he summons his trusted colleagues, Chief Inspector of Scotland Yard Ambrose Congreve, former U.S. Navy SEAL Stokley Jones, Jr., and recruits a crack Hostage Rescue Team—a group of elite soldiers of fortune known as "Thunder & Lighting." Before they can devise a rescue plan, Hawke must figure out who took his boy—and why. An operative who has fought antagonists around the globe, Hawke has made many enemies; one in particular may hold the key to finding Alexei before it’s too late.
But an unexpected threat complicates their mission. Making his way to "Falcon’s Lair," the former Nazi complex created for Hitler, Putin is amassing an impressive armory that he intends to use for his triumphant return to Moscow.
Only one man can smash the Russian president’s plan for domination—a master counterspy who will cross every line to save his son . . . and maybe save the world itself in the bargain.
In an elegant palazzo on the Grand Canal, an American ambassador's tryst turns deadly. In the seamy underbelly of London, a pub-crawling killer is on the loose. And in a storybook chapel nestled in the Cotswolds, a marriage made in heaven turns to hell on earth. Isolated incidents? Or links in a chain of events hurtling towards catastrophe? So begins Assassin, the tour de force thriller that heralds the return of every terrorist's worst nightmare, Alex Hawke.
A shadowy figure known as the Dog is believed to be the ruthless terrorist who is systematically and savagely assassinating American diplomats and their families around the globe. As the deadly toll mounts inexorably, Hawke, along with former NYPD cop and Navy SEAL Stokely Jones, is called upon by the U.S. government to launch a search for the assassin behind the murders.
Hawke, who “’makes James Bond look like a "slovenly, dull-witted clockpuncher"’” (Kirkus Reviews), is soon following a trail that leads back to London in the go-go nineties, when Arab oil money fueled lavish, and sometimes fiendish, lifestyles. Other murky clues point to the Florida Keys, where a vicious killer hides behind the gates of a fabled museum. And to a remote Indonesian island where a madman tinkers with strains of a deadly virus and slyly bides his time.
Hawke must call upon resources deep within himself. He must enter a race against time to stop a cataclysmic attack on America's most populous cities and avenge the inexplicable and horrific crime that has left him devastated.
Brimming with relentless action and stylish detail, and featuring a hero that readers will stand up and cheer for, Assassin is a gripping adventure. And definitely not recommended for the faint of heart.
“[Hawke is] a secret agent who takes you into the danger zone with a ballsy wit that had me hooked.”
—Vince Flynn
“Ted Bell puts a capital A in adventure….Commander Bond might choke on his martini next to Bell’s superlative Alex Hawke.”
—Madison County Herald
Ted Bell’s remarkable literary creation, counterspy Alex Hawke, has been called, “strong, shrewd, and savvy, with an aplomb not seen since James Bond” (NPR). He’s back in the explosive blockbuster Phantom, on a breathtaking hunt for a madman about to unleash a terrifying new Artificial Intelligence-powered super weapon on the world. Another superb espionage thriller by a true, New York Times bestselling master of the fictional spy game, Bell’s Phantom explores a dark side of science while delivering non-stop action, as Hawke races across the globe in order to prevent a coming apocalypse—and the millions of fans of Bell’s Warlord, Tsar, and Spy will be breathless every perilous step along the way.
Intelligence officer Alex Hawke takes on power-hungry Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is wielding a terrifying new weapon, in the latest adrenaline-fueled thriller in Ted Bell’s New York Times bestselling series.
In corrupt Russia, an erratic Vladimir Putin is determined to forge his country into a formidable superpower once again. He intends to redraw the map of Europe, and will go to impossible extremes to realize his fantasies—including shooting down a civilian airliner packed with tourists bound for China. Kremlin scientists have developed a radical new weapon that could forever alter modern warfare. NATO, locked in a tense standoff over Ukraine, Poland, and Estonia, knows Putin will not hesitate to use it. But there is one man who can bring the world back from the brink: Britain’s foremost intelligence asset, Lord Alexander Hawke.
The intrepid MI6 officer’s latest challenge begins in the Gulf of Aden and soon has him searching for the link to a series of bizarre assassinations. Spies are dying all over the world—from London, Washington, D.C., and Maine, to Moscow, and even the glittering Cote d’Azur. In the murky world of counterterrorism and high-stakes intrigue, the odds have never been higher. Once again, Alex Hawke must save the world . . . one bullet at a time.
Aboard the Star of Shanghai in the south of France, an American spy is held captive. He possesses vital, explosive intelligence linking two nations and one horrifying plot. If he is not rescued, he faces certain torture and inevitable death. Nearby, in a seaside hotel, a man still haunted by the loss of his wife two years earlier finds comfort in the arms of a beautiful Chinese actress--but is she to be trusted? So begins Pirate, an electrifying thriller marking the return of international counterterrorist Alex Hawke. In Paris, a ruthless descendant of Napoleon has risen to power, hell-bent on restoring France's former glory. His fiery ambitions are cynically stoked by a coterie of cold-blooded Mandarins, plotting behind the gates of Beijing's Forbidden City. Cloaked in secrecy, this unholy alliance devises a twisted global plan, backed by China's growing nuclear arsenal, that will send America and the world to the brink of a gutwrenching showdown.
With the aid of his old friend and former Navy SEAL, Stokely Jones, Hawke sets out to investigate the deadly connections that bind the French-Chinese axis. Together, they discover that a powerful German industrialist may hold the key, somewhere inside the walls of his Bavarian mountain lair. Meanwhile, clues to an old and gruesome murder in Paris lead to New York City, where horrifying evidence could finally bring a madman to his knees. In the end, as American and British forces prepare to defend a sovereign and oil-rich Gulf nation against unwilling occupation, the terror is all too real. The world is once more balanced on the knife-edge of a full-blown nuclear confrontation.
Hawke must once more prepare to hurl himself deep into the nightmare visions of madmen. He must garner every ounce of strength, courage, and useful pain from his past. He must defeat this enemy or else forfeit the lives of untold thousands, including his own, to an axis of evil no historian could have ever predicted.
Packed with unrelenting action, glamour, and high style, and featuring the spectacular Alex Hawke, who time and again transports readers to the edge of danger, Pirate is a spellbinding thriller. Be prepared for Alex Hawke's most daunting and heart-pounding mission yet. Here is an author who gets you in the palm of his hand...and then clenches his fist!
When an elderly professor at Cambridge is murdered, a victim of bizarre, ancient Chinese torture, Alex Hawke teams up with his Scotland Yard colleague and friend Inspector Ambrose Congreve to find the killer. But the death is only the opening move in a tense and lethal game of geopolitical brinksmanship.
In the United States the president has begun behaving strangely. Is his mental health deteriorating—or is there something far more sinister behind his questionable moves? The answer is crucial, for tensions are mounting between China, North Korea, and the U.S. And China has launched fighter jets and a mega submarine vastly more sophisticated than any seen before—military technology that leapfrogs anything the U.S. and Great Britain possess.
With the situation edging toward an unthinkable abyss, Hawke must pull off his most daring mission yet: infiltrate the China and neutralize the source of their advantage . . . or risk witnessing World War III.
"A border ain't nothing but a law drawn in the sand." So says a small-town Texas sheriff in Ted Bell's most gripping espionage thriller to date. Things along America's southern border are rapidly reaching the boiling point. American girls are being snatched from their homes, ranches are burning, and the number of deadly confrontations along the Mexican border grows daily. At night, armed Mexican troops cross the border at will in support of narcotics smugglers and illegal immigrants. By day, Americans take up arms and plan reprisals. An all-out border war is no longer inconceivable. It's happening!
On assignment for the British Secret Service, a man leads a mysterious expedition into the heart of darkness. Sailing up the furthest reaches of the Amazon River, he is captured by a brutal tribe of indigenous cannibals. Forced into slave labor, he witnesses the unimaginable. Golden domes and minarets rise beneath the rainforest canopy. Vast terror armies are being recruited and trained in the jungle. Their goal: a vicious jihad that will unite one continent...and destroy another. They possess weapons only dreamed of by the Western allies. Somehow he must escape his captors and live to tell the tale.
With tensions on its southern border threatening to ignite into war, America must look to the one man who might be able to confront the demons in the jungle...and destroy them. Alex Hawke, with the aid of brilliant Scotland Yard Inspector Ambrose Congreve, and an unstoppable force of nature named Stokely Jones, begins a river journey fraught with peril. He must find a river with no name, and a villain like no other. He must confront all the terrors that man and nature can hurl at him. From black magic, poison-tipped arrows, and blowguns to an awesome arsenal of the most advanced military hardware, Hawke must overcome insurmountable odds on his quest for victory.
Here is an author who gets you in the palm of his hand and then clenches his fist. And here is a saga loaded to the gunwales with action, glamour, and spellbinding suspense. Alex Hawke once again takes readers right to that thin border between fear and overwhelming terror. It's merely a line drawn in the sand. Cross it at your peril.
Cross it if you dare.
Somewhere in Russia, there dwells a man so powerful no one even knows his name. His existence is only speculated upon, only whispered about in American corridors and CIA strategy meetings. Though he is practically invisible, he is pulling strings—and pulling them hard. For suddenly, Russia is a far, far more ominous threat than even the most hardened cold warriors ever thought possible.
The Russians have their finger on the switch to the European economy and an eye on the American jugular. And, most importantly, they want to be made whole again. Should America interfere with Russia’s plans, well then, America will pay in blood. As this political crisis plays out, Russia gains a new leader. Not just a president, but a new tsar, a signal to the world that the old, imperial Russia is back. And in America, a mysterious killer brutally murders an innocent family and literally flattens the small Midwestern town they once called home. Just a taste, according to the new tsar, of what will happen if America does not back down. Onto this stage must step Alex Hawke, espionage agent extraordinaire and the only man who can stop the absolute madness borne and bred inside the "New Russia." Gripping and imaginative, Tsar is Ted Bell’s most explosive tale of international suspense to date.
“Hawke is…strong, shrewd and savvy, with an aplomb not seen since James Bond tore up the pages of Ian Fleming’s novels….Warlord stands tall....A first rate thriller.”
—National Public Radio
Thriller fiction of the highest order, Warlord by Ted Bell returns British-American MI6 counterterrorism operative Alex Hawke to the field, as he races to stop a plot to murder Great Britian’s royal family. This latest spellbinding installment in the New York Times bestselling series is filled with twists and turns, shocks and surprises, ever-escalating peril and ingenious spycraft. Warlord “puts a capital A in adventure” (Madison County Herald) and offers further proof why Ted Bell deserves his position on the A-list along with Clive Cussler, Robert Ludlum, Brad Thor, Vince Flynn, and Daniel Silva.
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