The Kremlin Conspiracy by Joel C. Rosenberg

(opening note: Rosenberg is the author of 12 novels over 16 years about various worst-case scenarios in the Middle East. Now he turns his vivid imagination to Russia).

The Kremlin Conspiracy traces the paths of two families – American and Russian – across 30 years focusing on Marcus Ryker and Oleg Krashkin. Marcus grew up in Colorado. A typical outdoorsy adrenaline junkie. No risk to great. Lucky for him, he met Elana in the 6^th grade, dated throughout high school and college. Marcus’ goal is law enforcement in Colorado.

Oleg is the son of some privilege. Went to university and law school where he met Marina Luganov who was the daughter of a rising star in Russian politics. Oleg had become the youngest partner in Moscow’s more important law firm. By the time Oleg prepares to propose, her father Alexsandr, had risen through the FSB and has become the Prime Minister with eyes on the Presidency. Upon accepting Oleg’s request for Marina’ hand, Luganov suprises Oleg with a job offer to be on his personal staff. Being the first wedding of a Prime Minister or President since the days of the czars, the pomp and circumstance of the wedding rivaled Charles and Diana.

Then 9/11 happens.

Marcus joins the Marines and serves with distinction in Afghanistan. Returns home and marries Elana. His heroics in saving a sitting Senator gained him some unwanted notoriety and the eye of the US Secret Service. After the Marines, he joins the Colorado Springs police department, but it isn’t long before the Secret Service comes knocking. Leaving behind his home, he and a less than thrilled Elana begin their lives on the east coast. As a junior agent, he was involved in an assault on the White House and again, his willingness to run toward fire put him in front of the President. Again, more unwanted publicity. But the President elevates Marcus to his personal detail where Marcus is exposed to the tactics of the highest level of personal protection.

Oleg has stayed by Luganov’s side as a personal secretary and ultimately as chief counsel to the hugely popular President. He now sits directly beside the man determined to bring Russia back to its deserved place as the single world superpower.

(The story rushes to the current day). Luganov’s plan for Russia is atrocious. Stage military exercises along their border with Ukraine as well as Russia’s borders with Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. Quietly move in massive amounts of armored and air support. NATO will pay closer attention to Ukraine assuming that Russia will not dare attack three NATO members because that would enact Article 5 – an attack on one is an attack on all.

Senator Robert Dayton of Iowa (the one Marcus saved in Afghanistan) is a vocal critic of the sitting US president as well as Russia’s actions. In an attempt to dissuade Russia’s actions, he undertakes a trip to the Baltic states. His security detail includes the experienced Agent Ryker. An unexpected opportunity for Senator Dayton to meet with Luganov puts the staffs of both in a planning meeting. During the meeting, Oleg abruptly stops the negotiations, walks over to a stunned security guard and asks, “You are Agent Ryker who saved your president.’ Gulp. Now what? “I want to shake the hand of a brave man. My name is Oleg Krashkin.” Oleg turns around and gets back to the discussions.

Luganov is the ultimate player in international politics. Playing sides against each other, lying to the world while doing the opposite behind their back. An invasion of the Baltics is planned. Luganov wants a lightening fast assault that will catch NATO unprepared. Hopes that NATO’s response will give him the opportunity to use his battlefield nukes. He relishes and looks forward to the opportunity.

Oleg sees not the reemergence of Russia. He sees a holocaust. The steps needed for the eventual meeting we readers all know must happen begin. Oleg reaches out to Marcus.

While the US and NATO seem paralyzed, Ryker, through the CIA’s chief of station in Moscow, war game out various scenarios seeing only one option. Oleg is doing the same thing on his own and comes to the same conclusion.

OK, Rosenberg’s forte has been the Middle East and a number of his books have been reviewed by the boys here at MRB. I haven’t read one in a while and I’m kicking myself for letting some fall under my radar. Many of his books were eerily prescient. Aspects of his books actually happened, usually within a year of two of publication. This is his first venture out of the Middle East, but that doesn’t mean he has lost his gift for presenting complex geopolitical interplay at a breakneck pace in a highly entertaining and readable story. I suspect this might be the beginning of a Marcus Ryder series. Coming in at just under 500 pages, Rosenberg keeps the story moving at an alarming pace while still building credible empathy for the motivations that drive both Ryker and Kraskin. How each come to their solutions may differ, but the eventual common outcome is undeniable. This one will get your heart pounding.

Without Warning by Joel Rosenberg

Part 3 of the JB Collins trilogy picks up a few months after where part 2 (The First Hostage) left off - the rescue of the US President who had been kidnapped by ISIS.

JB Collins is the war correspondent for the NY Times. The award winning journalist is not above getting his hands dirty when it comes to revealing to the public that which the current administration seems intent on hiding, minimizing, or flat out ignoring. ISIS is a threat to the US and its leaders don't just need to be brought to justice. They need to be eliminated. Collins has seen it in the eyes of the ISIS leader, Abu Khalif, whom he has interviewed and is the only western individual to actually have seen Khalif in the flesh (I know, a take-no-prisoners hawk as a NY Times reporter seems a bit far fetched, but give Rosenberg some slack).

A few months earlier, Collins was instrumental in the President's rescue. A grateful President has invited Collins and his brother Matt to sit with the First Lady at the annual State of the Union Address. While appreciative of the efforts of the US security forces for his rescue, he still will not utter anything synonymous with 'radical' or 'extremist'. He prefers to use the drone force instead of sweeping in with insurmountable ground forces to wipe out ISIS, which is what JB vociferously encourages the President to do. To no avail.

During the SOTU address, mortars and howitzer shells, some loaded with sarin gas, reign down on the Capitol. While most of the heads of state escape, hundreds of others are killed. The next day, horror is inflicted on several other cities in a coordinated attack. Finally, because Khalif is seriously pissed off at Collins, a hit squad is dispatched to his family home in Maine.

And we aren't even to page 100 yet.

The President still neglects an all out offensive on ISIS so Collins secretly heads to the mideast in order to offer some help to security forces in Israel, Egypt, and Jordan (remember, he's one of the few to have ever seen Khalif in person). With relentless tenacity, a plausible trail on Khalif's location has been traced.

I'll admit. I'm a bit out of Rosenberg's loop. I had read and reviewed a number of his earlier books noting how prescient his stories were in regard to current day situations that ended up actually happening usually within a year of publication. While I'm not turned off by Rosenberg's evangelism and Christian witnessing, I guess I let it influence my staying current with his books. The JB Collins trilogy being a noteworthy omission in my reading enjoyment. Evangelism aside, Rosenberg writes some of the most compelling political thrillers that are centered in the political powder keg that is the middle east.  The first chapter tells us that the President's rescue (The First Hostage) had taken place a couple months earlier to which I sort of muttered to myself, 'looks like I've missed something here.' Does knowing the outcome of Part 2 mean I won't read it? Storytelling is in the details and Rosenberg has the details down pat. I mean, the audience always knew who the killer was, but we still watched Columbo. I like a good political thriller yarn, so I may just go back to parts 1 and 2. Even though I know just how thrilling part 3 ends.

ECD

The Third Target by Joel Rosenberg

Rosenberg’s early novels were a touch frightening because they tended to precede actual events by a year or two. Let’s hope he’s wrong this time.

 

NY Times middle east reporter JB Collins has a good rep in the region and counts as friends, and as occasional sources, intelligence chiefs and rulers of Israel, Jordan, Iraq, and the US President. A comprehensive peace deal is in the works between Israel and the Palestinians, brokered by the King of Jordan.

ISIS has run amok in Syria and has taken control of much of northern Iraq. The head of ISIS is a sociopathic Jordanian Abu Khalif and his cousin/commandant Jamal Ramzy. Collins has been trying for a year to get an interview with Ramzy and maybe even Khalif himself, currently a resident of Abu Ghraib, courtesy of the Iraqis. When Ramzy finally agrees, Collins has to hoof it overground deep into Syria and what he learns knocks him off his feet. ISIS captured a warehouse in Syria where the Syrian government was hiding sarin gas that they hid from UN inspectors. And ISIS got a lot of it. Including delivery tools.

The US President wants Collins to sit on the story until after the peace treaty is signed but Collins isn’t happy because he thinks the President is minimizing the ISIS threat. So Collins intensifies his efforts to get access to the imprisoned Khalif. The interview is chilling. Khalif says ISIS has attacked and is in the process of defeating its first two objectives: Syria and Iraq. Next up is the third target, but he won’t say what it is. Could be the US, Israel, or maybe the signing ceremony for the treaty. The big question is whether Khalif will pull the trigger on the sarin gas or attack using more conventional weaponry.

Good story and it ends with a none-too-subtle cliffhanger that his next book will pick up right where page 423 ended. I do have my issues with Rosenberg. First, it took me about 100 pages to get into the book and was dangerously close to returning it to the library, but kept plugging away and glad I did. Once it got going, the story flew at a breakneck pace. Second, I grew tired of the internal dialogues of questions and what ifs that Rosenberg had Collins playing in his head. Lastly, Rosenberg makes no secret of his Christian faith and interjects it frequently into the narrative. Problem is, for me at least, when he starts expressing his faith, it doesn’t seem to be an essential part of the story – just sort of there.

All in all (and the first 100 pages aside), Rosenberg delivers a terrific thriller based in the Middle East. When you get to the last half of the book, you’ll quickly see why I hope Rosenberg’s crystal ball has it wrong.

ECD

Damascus Count Down by Joel Rosenberg

The 12th Imam has consolidated his power, convincing most all the Islamic countries to not only pledge their support to the Iman, but also to put their military under his command and control in preparation for war against the Zionists. 

But Israel has taken the proverbial bull by the horns. They have initiated a first strike against Iran and have wiped out Iran's nuclear capabilities and their nuclear arsenal . . . all but two that are missing. From earlier books, a CIA operative (of Iranian descent) has worked his way into the inner circle, sort of. His cover is with a German telecom company that provides encrypted sat phones to the governing council. Of course, now the CIA can listen in on the most secret of phone calls. It's this operative that has been tasked by his bosses to find the two nukes and destroy them (I half expected 'if any of your IMF team are caught or killed, the secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions.'). 

I've read most of Rosenberg's products and his early work is entirely engaging and believable. He managed to be 6mo to a year or two ahead of events that actually occurred. But in his last 3ish books, he has been incorporating Christian beliefs and practices in ever increasing frequency. For many, this could be both inspiring and joyful while for others it can be tedious. For me, I get my inspiration from my church, not from my political thrillers. The plot was entirely plausible and should have been a winner. Early on, Rosenberg was in my power rotation because of plots like this. Sadly, the amount of religiosity has resulted in my first author to drop from that lofty presence. I didn't even get 100 pages read before I closed the book, removed my bookmark, and returned it to the library.

East Coast Don

The Tehran Initiative

Simply put, this was a contest between the allegedly good forces of Christianity and the evil forces of Islam. The author repeatedly quotes the Bible and states that giving one’s life over to Jesus will allow you to be saved. During the story, so called good Muslims are saved when they accept Jesus into their hearts. Characters who are skeptical of Christianity are suddenly converted under skeptical circumstances. If you’re a militant Christian, and our history is abundant with them, or if you’re a Christian bigot, or if you just find yourself, for no reason at all, wanting to kick some Muslim butt, then this book is for you. Rosenberg does create good characters, and this book builds on the ones he wrote about in his prior six books in this series. He sets up a reasonable story line, but the Christianity theme is too thick. I was tempted to quit before I got halfway through this one, but I obsessively plowed through to the end. After reading several Rosenberg books, I’m ready not to read the next one.

The Twelfth Iman by Joel Rosenberg

Iran is on the verge of their own nuclear bomb. Make that 9 nuclear bombs and more in the pipeline. Muslim writings state that a new world order ruled under Islamic Law will be established when Iran produces the might to defeat the great Satans (USA and Israel) and led by a mythic cleric known as the Twelfth Iman. Iran has waited centuries for this Iman to surface and lead them into a new era of peace and brotherhood - achieved by force.

And it looks like Islamic prophecy is coming true. The US intelligence services are caught flatfooted about a Muslim country's military power, again. Israel is mobilizing for war. Iran conducts an underground nuclear test and the CIA can't seem to connect the dots of nuclear power, the Islamic government, Koran prophesies, and the sporadic sightings of the Twelfth Iman. How can western governments be so blind to a country that denies the holocaust occurred is on the brink of causing their own?

All this is the reason for Rosenberg to begin a new three-part series on Iran and the Islamic view of the end of days. The bulk of this book is backstory to the main characters of the new series. Charlie Harper (not that one) is an embedded CIA agent in Tehran in the late 70's when the Shah's regime collapsed. He and his wife grab their neighbors and best friends, the Shirazi's, make a mad dash for the border to escape and get back to the US.

Once in the US, the Harpers settle in NJ while the Shirazi's go to Syracuse, NY. The father's take the oldest sons on a September fishing week in rural Canada. When the youngest Shirazi, David, is finally old enough for the vacation, Harper brings his daughter, Marseille. David resents this feminine intrusion, but ends up liking her - a lot. On the 11th, when they are supposed to leave the lake, they are stranded for a few days, coming home to an unspeakable reality.

David is Persian, not an Arab, but others in his school just see the enemy and David goes postal on some kids, eventually getting stuck in a residential high school in Alabama. I gonna skip about 20 steps and say that David eventually gets recruited into the CIA for a number of reasons and is now part of a team inserted into Iran to sniff out clues to their nuclear capability. Some careful snooping and some good luck land David far deeper into the Iranian hierarchy, of course, placing himself, his team, his local contacts in serious jeopardy.

I can't go much more of the plot cuz my blogging partner has it on his Kindle and I don't want him to get mad at me for revealing too much of the plot. I'll just reiterate what I said in an earlier post regarding Rosenberg's writing. The author is a Christian, born of a Jewish father and Gentile mother and his plots are heavily steeped in biblical pedagogy. While the biblical connections are necessary for the plot Rosenberg presents, some readers might find it a little overbearing, ending up sounding a bit like the Left Behind series. I'll venture a guess and say that fans of Rosenberg's books (like me) won't care one bit. Yes, he uses some of the same tricks used by authors like Brown, Grisham, et al. (e.g. ending most every chapter in a bit of a cliffhanger and some all too convenient bits of luck), but his style, love it or hate it, keeps the story moving along at a "damn, now what?" pace.

Dang good yarn, folks. Just don't be put off by the sermonizing that is concentrated in the latter third of the book. Follow it for what it is, - a terrific political thriller. Rosenberg seems to have a knack for being a couple years ahead of what actually ends of happening.

East Coast Don

The Last Jihad and The Last Days by Joel Rosenberg

I read the first two of five books by Joel Rosenberg, his first, The Last Jihad, and his second, The Last Days. One follows the other for a reason. He uses the same main characters in both books. Both involve an attempt to solve the Middle East crisis based on the sudden discovery of huge amounts of oil reserves underneath and off shore of Israel , the idea being that both Israelis and Palestinians can become exceedingly rich if there is a way to get them to share in the deal which would benefit them both. But, they have to agree with each other to get any of it since it is going to require a substantial investment by others in the infrastructure, and they won’t do it if there remains political instability. Of course there are the usual terrorist subplots. There are the radicals that want to interrupt any peace attempt and those who don’t want to give Palestine official statehood and those who don’t want to concede that has a right to exist. Both books are well-written and plausible (except for the discovery of oil). He has done his research and I learned more about some of the Middle East struggles, especially within the Palestinians than I had known before. I highly recommend those books to you.

WC Don

I've read all the Rosenberg novels and find the plots fun and the story moves along at a good pace. Each delves a bit more into religious doctrine that some might think a little overbearing and others find integral to the story. he has a nonfiction book called Epicenter than discusses current headlines and how they relate to Old Testament prophecy and that was pretty interesting.

agree on the Child books, good reads that move right along...most all the book have been optioned to hollywood where I think their biggest problem will be who plays Reacher...don't know too many 6 ft 5 inch 225lb actors are out there. Killing Floor is the first as I recall and most all are winners, even if I thought the most recent, Nothing to Lose, was the weakest of the series.

The Blevins books are neat tales, if you like that sort of thing, which I do. He is known for his period-accurate lingo so for that, I also find them fun to read when I want a change from political thriller/police story books.

I'm reading my 2nd Connelly book now. I reported on The Overlook a few weeks back and in that were numerous references to Bosch's previous case called Echo Park. I tried to get if from the library for this trip to Senegal but it hadn't come in by the time I had to leave : (

Our airport has a used book store and guess what was on the rack? Echo Park : )

so I bought it and have 80% read by the end of my decompression day after the flight. will probably finish it tonite (jet lag has it's advantages at times). so far...it rocks. Connelly has graduated to my current power rotation until I run out of titles or interest.

East Coast Don

reporting from (ridiculously humid) Dakar, Senegal