The Wolves

December 7, 2015
Edgar-winner Berenson’s exhilarating 10th spy thriller featuring ex-CIA agent John Wells wraps up a trilogy within the series that started with 2014’s The Counterfeit Agent. With the tacit approval of the U.S. president, Wells sets out to kill American billionaire Aaron Duberman, who almost tricked the U.S. into invading Iran in 2015’s Twelve Days. Duberman, a casino magnate with vast holdings in Macao, is now hiding out in his mansion high atop Hong Kong’s Victoria Peak. Wells, deeply undercover and using the latest in surveillance technology as well as gut-level tradecraft, spends weeks trying to find a crack in Duberman’s security armor. It finally comes when the Chinese and the Russians both become intrigued by the prospect of exploiting Duberman’s vulnerability. Typically unflappable in tight situations, Wells uncharacteristically freezes up at one point. Yet when the call of duty summons, Wells rises to the occasion; his emotions may be mixed, but he still puts on a great show for readers. Author tour. Agent: Bob Barnett, Williams & Connolly.

December 1, 2015
This adrenaline-filled thriller pits ex-CIA man John Wells against formidable foes. Multibillionaire Aaron Duberman has tried and failed "to fake the United States into a war" with Iran in order to help Israel. Wells stopped the plan and now "has made a mission of destroying Duberman's life." But they are gunning for each other, and neither man will ever be safe while the other is alive. Wells fans know from earlier novels (The Counterfeit Agent, 2014, etc.) that the ex-CIA man is a convert to Islam. Of course, some people will always suspect him for his conversion. In the White House, the president asks Wells to kill Duberman, who believes it's "his right to start a war." Meanwhile, Duberman feels unsafe in his Hong Kong home and hopes to gain political asylum in Russia because he's being kicked out of Israel. Sure, he didn't amass a $30 billion fortune without making some enemies, but it's really best that Wells not be one of them. So the two mortal adversaries are after each other in "not an assassination, or even a sniping, but a slow-motion duel." The billionaire isn't the only threat, however. Arms dealer Mikhail Buvchenko, who "sold death for a living," hates Wells, so of course each wants to kill the other. And crossing everyone's paths is Chinese Gen. Cheung Han, who wants to make China's air force the strongest in the world. The man is a pedophile for whom no girl is too young. Too bad for him he's in the same novel as Wells, who is not much given to mercy in a showdown. Fans of the John Wells series won't be disappointed. They'll agree with his enemies that if Wells isn't Superman, he's super something.

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February 1, 2016
After Berenson's Twelve Days (2015), most readers probably felt that they'd reached the boffo conclusion to a two-part story arc (following The Counterfeit Agent, 2014) within the larger John Wells series. Wrong. We learn here that there are unresolved issues regarding American billionaire Aaron Duberman, who very nearly tricked the U.S. into starting a war with Irana war narrowly averted by the efforts of maverick agent Wells, who wants Duberman dead but wants the U.S. president to step up and get it done. When that doesn't happen, Wells goes to work. So begins what should be a simple snatch, grab, and shoot but that quickly becomes something else entirely, thanks to Duberman being ensconced in a nearly impenetrable Hong Kong mansion and also to the fact that Russian and Chinese interests have thrown two very large spanners into the works. As always, Berenson brilliantly blends global politics into an adrenaline-pulsing spy novel. But, most of all, there is Wells, a stone-cold killer who nevertheless does what we all wish we could do: stand up to the powerful and make them pay. A fantasy? Probably, but it sure feels good.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

September 1, 2015

In his tenth outing, John Wells has shuttered an operation meant to foment war between Iran and the United States but must still nab its instigator. Then Russia and China get interested. From the No. 1 New York Times best-selling author.

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