WARRIORS

By Ted Bell

William Morrow, 2014

467 pages, $27.99

ISBN 978-0-06-227938-5

Fans of action-packed international adventure thrillers have no shortage of favorite authors from which to choose. Vince Flynn, Brad Thor and Daniel Silva are three of the most popular, but Maine has its contribution in Ted Bell.

Bell lives on the Maine coast, and is the author of the Alex Hawke series of thrillers, featuring Lord Alexander Hawke, the sixth richest man in Great Britain, naval aviator, spy, counter-intelligence operative and drinking pal of the royal elite. Hawke is sort of a well-manned, super-power James Bond, but without the tricky gimmicks or the snappy dialogue.

“Warriors” is the eighth book in the Hawke series, following “Phantom.” The novels by Flynn, Thor and Silva are grounded with some degree of realism and credibility, but Bell feels no such constraints. Over-the-top evil villains, improbable plots, miraculous escapes and unlikely action scenarios are Bell’s staples. He pulls it off very well.

In 2009, an American scientist and his family are kidnapped in Washington, D.C., and he is forced to develop weapons for the Chinese and North Koreans. Five years later, his efforts have produced “the most destructive weapon the world has ever seen,” and the U.S. and Great Britain face World War III.

Part of the diabolical Chinese plan includes the assassination of the president of the United States, the overthrow of the legitimate Chinese government by a renegade general and the unleashing of North Korean military provocations.

Apparently, Hawke is the only man who can stop this madness, so he and a hand-picked team of crack commandos must fight assassins at home and infiltrate secret bases in China and North Korea to rescue the scientist and his family.

A complete suspension of believability is needed to fully enjoy this novel. But this is fiction, so have fun.

DEAL KILLER

By Vicki Doudera

Midnight Ink, 2014

320 pages, $14.99

ISBN 978-0-7387-3429-3

Money seems to be a great equalizer. Everybody wants it, and some people are willing to kill for it. And there is a lot of money in real estate.

“Deal Killer” is the new mystery by Camden author Vicki Doudera, featuring her signature sleuth Darby Farr, a hotshot real estate agent skilled at closing the big score and with a dangerous knack for solving murders.

This is the fifth novel in Doudera’s Darby Farr mystery series, following “Final Settlement” (Midnight Ink, 2013). Doudera is a Realtor in Camden, so her real estate angles ring with authentic tone.

Darby, from Hurricane Harbor, Maine, is in New York City visiting her British boyfriend, Miles Porter, who teaches journalism at Columbia University. Miles lives in a luxurious high-rise overlooking Central Park, alongside interesting tenants like a Russian billionaire, a royal princess, a college student and heiress with an imposing bodyguard, a curious dog-walker and a couple of smarmy, unscrupulous lawyers.

When a Russian businessman threatens Miles over a student’s investigative news story, and then ends up skewered and quite dead a short time later, Miles becomes a suspect in the man’s murder. The student/heiress is his neighbor in the building, and her story is a hard-hitting expose of the Russian mob and the FSB (old KGB) stealing and selling off royal properties in St. Petersburg, Russia.

To help Miles clear himself, Darby investigates the victim, the student, a death threat and why everybody is lying to her and the police. She also discovers a real estate scam worth millions, and it is the money that drives the killer into more desperate acts.

Hidden identities, a sloppy frame-up, more bodies and some fancy detective work uncover clever plot twists and the realization that the killer is very close to everyone.

Bill Bushnell lives and writes in Harpswell.