Terror's Sword by Kevin Kuhens
Kevin Kuhens
4 Stars
Pages: 364
Genre: Thriller
Published: 15 March 2022
Publisher's Blurb
The fate of America—and the entire world—rests in the hands of one man: Kyle McEwan.
A terrorist known only by his nom de guerre is barreling toward America to attack it with an undetermined biological weapon. With millions of his citizens facing certain death, the president unleashes elite counterterrorism case officer Kyle McEwan, the desperate last measure America’s chief executives use when all other conventional methods fail to eliminate national security threats. McEwan’s blistering international pursuit links murders and kidnappings, allowing him to identify the terror mastermind and bioagent. With the terrorist on the verge of striking, can McEwan unravel the plot in time to prevent an apocalyptic global pandemic?
As only an insider can convey, Terror’s Sword unveils the deep state machinations that test McEwan’s courage and perseverance and vividly depicts the extreme measures he must take to defeat this true-to-life bioterror threat.
Review
When the world’s foremost bioweapons experts start mysteriously
disappearing, or turning up dead, Kyle McEwan smells a terrorist plot.
Given a ‘licence to kill’ by the US President, McEwan sets out to track down
the mastermind behind the nefarious conspiracy.
What follows is a race against time across the globe on the tail of the
jihadist known only as ‘Terror’s Sword’
With all of the resources of the United States of America to call on McEwan
needs to unite the countries squabbling government law enforcement agencies and
strike quickly to prevent the death of millions of innocent people.
The overall plot is a sound premise and the pacing is good as the leading
protagonist works with various law and military groups to unravel the identity
of the books villain and his mission.
I struggled in the early chapters with both the numerous acronyms and the
listing of every type of weapon and aircraft used in the early skirmishes but
this soon gave way to a riveting story that continued right through to the end.
A lot of thought has gone into the research for the plot
and is at a level that whilst entertains also shows how much goes on behind the
scenes that we’ll never know about.
Kyle McEwan is the type of character that appears to have no real flaws and is
an amalgamation of the intelligent of Jack Reacher and the street smarts of
John Rambo. I would have liked to have seen a vulnerable side to the character
and/or a romantic angle that would make him more relatable.
During the book we spend a fair amount of time following
the ‘Terror’s Sword’ jihadist as he seeks to enter the United States and carry
out his plan. Maybe it is a manifestation of ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ but I found
myself willing him on as he stumbled into one unforeseen situation after
another. Don’t get me wrong, I always wanted him to come out second best in the
end but I found the character, with his vulnerabilities, more relatable than
the hard, single purposed, McEwan
I liked the added backstory for some of the minor players that increased the
emotional effect when bad things happen.
In summary, this is a nicely written thriller with some good plot twists and
turns that blindside both the reader and the pursuing posse. A little too much
emphasis on hardware and the members of the various agencies involved in the
early chapters but this is quickly forgotten as the story unfolds. There is a
handy list in the back explaining the acronyms and other jargon used in the
book which was useful.
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