While I was really looking forward to reading this book, it just didn't hold up to my expectations. I didn't finish even though I started and stopped several times in case it was just me not being in the right frame of mind. Finally, I just moved on.

From Khost to New York, to drinks, to DUI, to arrested, and then face to face with an assassin. This book is truly free fall parachuting. No way the series will maintain (they never do) but this offering is GREAT!!

This reads like a Hollywood Action movie and just as far fetched in places.
It is fast paced with some wonderful characters.
Hold onto your hat with this one.

This may be one of the most difficult reviews I have ever written, since Mr Hines has a real talent. Starting with the positive features - this is a very well written and fast-paced action novel with compelling descriptive writing and effective use of intra-character dialogue. From that perspective it was hard to put down and I certainly wanted to keep turning pages beyond the point at which I should have been calling it a day and grabbing some sleep.

Before I turn to the negative features I need to stress that I enjoy Lee Child's Jack Reacher novels and the international intelligence officer/spy/covert agent genre covered by Tom Clancy and many others. So extreme violence; playing ducks and drakes with legality; and a requirement to suspend disbelief are all OK by me in a well written action novel.

But - and it really is a colossal BUT - the engaging narrative in this novel is quickly compromised by a disappointing gamut of poor choices in terms of content and context. The bad guys are psychopathic cliches, where they are American Caucasian, and basically Muslim terrorists elsewhere. I hold no brief for encouraging political correctness in novels - that would remove too many of the real classics, however defined. But the Islamophobic tone of this novel just grates. The basic premise that the American military and law enforcement agencies would simply shrug and tolerate many of the responses to a terrorist attack being led by gangsters is also absurd. This is a shame.

Mr Hines has a great action novel somewhere in his head. I look forward to reading it if it can be cleansed of the foolishness apparent in this first instalment..

Bishop's War is about a superhero even more super than most of the heroes we have to date read about. His fiancee says he is a comic book hero, and I agree. The author has taken a whale of a story and amped it up ten-fold. Nothing is easy here. Our hero is over the top, the action is over the top. Say the same for the loyalty and love shown in the novel. The violence is over the top, The unsurvivable injuries are survivable for our hero and his buddies. Much of it is mean and vulgar. The bad guys are over the top. Nothing is real life here, thus comic book is apt. It just doesn't have pictures. It is a long novel and when I finished it I was worn out. The talk of a sequel left me cold. For now. You will note that I finished this novel. I couldn't have done that if I hadn't enjoyed it Even comic book heroes have their place! Thanks NetGalley for the ARC of this interesting and exciting story.