Eye for an Eye (A Dewey Andreas Novel)

In my review of Coes' first thriller, I posed the rhetorical question "why I am giving 5 stars to a 1 star" disaster"? My response was that Coe knew how to craft and tell a story. Inelegantly at the time, to be sure, but the raw, unformed talent was there. I expressed my hope that Coes would grow with experience.

The next two thrillers were better than the first, but still not the equal of Lee Child, the late (and very much lamented) Vince Flynn and Brad Thor.

In "Eye For An Eye", Coes seems to have gone backwards. The plot is vastly overblown and unbelievable. The narrative is pumped beyond bursting with adjectives. Coes appears to be consciously imitating Clive Cussler's Barnumesque hyperbolic style, a feat even Cussler is progressively less capable of.

I don't like divulging details of a novel for fear of inadvertently spoiling it for someone else. But when describing the secretary of a government official, why is it necessary to describe her as "beautiful", a description completely out of context with the unfolding scene?

I am a technologist and authors who make up their technology irritate me.

Coes doesn't merely make it up - he insults any reader with the slightest comprehension of Information Technology.

Dewey Andreas is a cartoon character. He has become a predictable bore.

By page 77, I was losing interest. By page 84, I was becoming angry with myself for wasting my time continuing to read. At page 117, I took the vow never to read anything by Ben Coes again. Maybe I'll pick this book up some time and give it another shot. Right now, it is off my reading pile.

Why do I give it 3 stars? Because as bad as it is, it might still be enjoyed by some looking for a fantasy thriller, one not rooted in any semblance of reality.

Jerry

I'd give this book a 3.5 if that was a choice but it just doesn't make it to the level of a 4. It is very well written with a tried and true plot line (revenge). However, the sub-plot of the Chinese holding the US hostage with debt is a far more enjoyable one and should have played a much bigger role in the overall story.

The book is basically a series of unbelievable chases where people are surviving 150mph car and motorcycle crashes while accurately firing automatic weapons from those same vehicles. While the first time is exciting, it gets to the point of incredulity and then becomes gratuitous. We all know Dewey is a super-hero, impossible to kill, always gets his man, etc. etc.. A couple of miraculously survivals would be enough but chapter after chapter is nothing more than our hero performing miraculously feats.

Had the author focused more on China holding us hostage with our debt, the story would have been much fuller and more enjoyable. Partly because it's a very real possibility that the US needs to be aware of and secondly because it would have made for a much more complex novel. It's not a bad book as written, it just is a very forgettable one once you are done.

I have enjoyed Ben Coes' previous novels featuring Dewey Andreas, in large part because the plots were somewhat believeable. Yes, Dewy Andreas follows the prototypical "Larger Than Life" character arc, much like Mitch Rapp or John Clark, but that's why he's the hero, for gosh sakes! But unfortunately, in "Eye for an Eye" Dewey Andreas stops being real, and verges into caricature.

Naturally I will not give away the plot unlike so many other reviewers, but I will divulge one theme Mr. Coes added to my dismay: "Everyone except Dewey Andreas is incredibly stupid!" I'm sorry, but that theme ruined the story for me, and was a "shark-jumping" moment for this series. Can Ben Coes redeem himself by getting back to the basics which made Dewey Andreas a compelling action hero, or will he just send his "Maine Man" hurtling down the bobsled run of irrelevance? I sincerely hope it's the former.

As a fan (Like many of the reviewers here) of Brad Thor and most Vince Flynn works-I was excited to read my first Ben Coes book. I must admit that I was a bit disappointed in that I did not feel as if it were as compelling as the works of either of the above mentioned. Dewey Andreas is an interesting character that is flawed and has many demons and also many skills but this novel never grabbed me and made me want to keep understanding what would come next. The plot is set up nicely enough in the beginning as Andreas is married with his then wife snatched away and killed by a Chinese Terrorist/politician and the rest of the book is about how Andreas can exact revenge. The plot and it's implications can be interesting but it's really an action driven thriller much more than overall plot driven or character driven.

I felt like I had to slog my way through this book vs. the works of Thor and Brad Taylor which compel me to want to read and turn the pages. I was just a little too bored to love this book but obviously many like it so possibly a personal preference. I think Coes has potential but the plot and book need to tighten up and then possibly it would have been more enjoyable. It would have been nice to see Mr Coes get where he wanted to go faster than he did for my faste.

I know I will be criticized for this review because 90% of Coes readers are like me, avid Coes readers. My comment "NOT REALLY NEEDED" means that this revenge novel was unnecessary. I waited a year for this book. Had it on pre-order for 3-6 months. I did not need a revenge novel. I wanted an action-packed cause, go after the bad guys book, I got action packed but logic did not serve itself in this rendition. It ended so badly that my daughter could have dreamed it up. Unbelieveable! Unlogical.

I won't go into the reason for Dewey to become such a madman. It would give the plot away more than the above reviews. It was the death, should say accidental death, of someone close to Dewey. After this logic does not prevail. Should I say independent. Uncontrolled. And Dewey should not have even been blamed for the irrational act by Israel. I will let you figure this out.

I rated the book a 3 because it does not hold a candle to the other three books. I know Coes will come up with another book by June 2014 but please Ben write a GOOD BOOK with a plausible story and ploy. I hate revenge novels.

Amateurish. Implausible. Poorly written on the most basic levels. Unconvincing plot. Action scenes that defy credibility. This could have been an excellent read, but the author needs an editor who will cajole and convince. The hero has a mantra, which I won't reveal, but I simply got tired of reading the same banal slogan over and over. And, by the way, 'an eye for an eye' does not equate to revenge, but to equitable justice.

When I read Ben Coes first novel featuring ex-Delta Force member Dewey Andreas, I found it to be an intelligent thriller that had some depth that is usually lacking in the 'indestructible super patriot terrorist killer' genre. His second one was good as well and had an interesting premise. The third one was where the dumbing down began with Super Dewey taking on a sadistic raving maniac Iranian general who was so over the top evil and volatile that it was hard to believe that the guy could have ever accomplished anything. Now in Eye For An Eye this decline reaches ridiculous proportions. Andreas is probably the only character who is not a comical stereotype of the Enemy Of America or a one dimensional cheerleader. The plot is dumb and nonsensical. No matter what Andreas does, he is worshipped blindly by all the characters in Washington. He leaves a trail of bodies wherever he goes but the only description ever uttered of him is "American hero" by the very people who would have the job of cleaning up his mess. The final gambit by Andreas is so utterly ridiculous that I had to laugh. Just imagine every old movie where they had a white guy in make-up trying to play an Asian and then imagine the bad guy who is described as the most intelligent and ruthless man in China falling for it. lol. This all-out revenge plot has been done much better by David Hagberg and Vince Flynn. 2 superior authors in the genre. I was going to give it one star but since I managed to finish it, I'll go with 2 but just barely. It's too bad, too. I wonder if Coes is just going for empty rah rah Team America F*** Yeah! stuff or if he can get back to the form of his first 2 novels. I hope he does.

This book ended up grabbing me. Initially I noticed Coes' somewhat clunky writing. But it steadies and the action quickly takes off. It's fast, relentless and vicious, even for page-turners of this type.

The killing of a Chinese mole inside Mossad sets off violence worldwide as China's head spy Fao Bhang tries to kill Andreas in revenge, not realizing CIA and MI6 have amplified the incident with a macabre touch to draw out Bhang himself.

I like Andreas as a hero, paradoxically, because he's not really likeable and thus more genuine. He's inarticulate and reclusive. He can barely bring himself to grunt responses to friendly questions. He has anger management problems. He has an inner circle of people he trusts, one of whom he nearly strangles in this book and all of whom he locks into a vault to make an escape. His sense of humor emerges mostly when he's working over someone like the Iranian UN ambassador or a billionaire arms dealer who's crossed him.

But serious tough guys like this, killers with lifetime three-digit body counts, would rarely be smooth diplomats or charm-school graduates. (At least not the killers with lifetime three-digit body counts I've personally known.) He's a scary MF and Coes blessedly doesn't try to make him less so by overloading him with social graces out of guilt. In this he compares favorably with Matthew Dunn's Will Cochrane and Andrew Kaplan's Scorpion, both of whom are just too smooth and too nice, no matter how lonely, isolated and tormented they're supposed to be. Andreas is much more convincing when he's drunk, red-eyed and mean, because it isn't that far from who he normally is.

There are a lot of great touches, including a weekly pick-up hockey game led by the president, a former NHL player, and Andreas' chase of bad guys on a motorcycle after they attempt to assassinate him. Also a futuristic Chinese interrogation and lie-detection device: invented by Bhang's technogenius brother, it is described in such detail you wonder whether it might actually exist somewhere.

The book establishes a pervasive sense of Chinese cyberpenetration. They're probably reading each of these keystrokes as I'm laying them down. Andreas' technophobia (another reason I like him - he can't remember computer passwords either) ends up helping him as it takes him off the grid.

But I think it's the violence that really sets this book off. There's a certain savagery that jars you out of your complacency and makes you realize just how bad things can get.

The climactic sequence is quite inventive and gripping. And, while I won't spoil the ending, let's just say it's a doozy.

I've been on-board with this series since the beginning when 'Power Down' was first published a few years ago. That was an eye-opener and marked what I knew would be a fine writing career for Ben Coes, if he chose to stick with it. Four books later I am happy to report that all is well with this series and, in fact, it has somehow managed to improve.

This book is just what a 4th book in an action-thriller series should be. It's not a repeat of the previous novels (i.e. Coes does not succumb to the "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" formula trap that often happens with these series). Instead of a direct mission to stop terrorists, Dewey Andreas and his cohorts are forced to react to circumstances that have built up from previous books. The title "Eye for an Eye" is an obvious clue to the fact that this is a revenge story, and indeed it is...but so much more than that. That phrase, even, has more than one meaning in the novel but I won't spoil that for you. Rest assured that there is high emotional content to accompany the exquisitely written action plot. I especially enjoyed the characters' plan for the final climactic scenes...the staging and the execution of their plan. I really cared what happened with these characters, even the minor ones; always a sign of a good read. The action/spy craft was spot on as well without being burdensome. Well done!

I'll be anxiously waiting for the next book by Mr Coes.

Ben Coes has done it again - Eye foe an Eye is a gripping thriller that takes you on a global quest for justice. Tackling pressing political, financial and religious issues, the book is a must-read by fans of modern thriller novels!