Product Description

In Ted Bell’s scorching follow-up to his New York Times bestseller Assassin, intrepid intelligence operative Alex Hawke must thwart a secret, deadly alliance between China and France before they annihilate everything and everyone in their headlong rush toward world domination.

Aboard the Star of Shanghai in the south of France, an American spy is held captive. He possesses vital, explosive intelligence linking two nations and one horrifying plot. If he is not rescued, he faces certain torture and inevitable death. Nearby, in a seaside hotel, a man still haunted by the loss of his wife two years earlier finds comfort in the arms of a beautiful Chinese actress - but is she to be trusted? So begins Pirate, an electrifying thriller marking the return of international counterterrorist Alex Hawke.

In Paris, a ruthless descendant of Napoleon has risen to power, hell-bent on restoring France’s former glory. His fiery ambitions are cynically stoked by a coterie of cold-blooded Mandarins, plotting behind the gates of Beijing’s Forbidden City. Cloaked in secrecy, this unholy alliance devises a twisted global plan, backed by China’s growing nuclear arsenal, that will send America and the world to the brink of a gut-wrenching showdown.

With the aid of his old friend and former Navy SEAL, Stokely Jones, Hawke sets out to investigate the deadly connections that bind the French-Chinese axis. Together, they discover that a powerful German industrialist may hold the key, somewhere inside the walls of his Bavarian mountain lair. Meanwhile, clues to an old and gruesome murder in Paris lead to New York City, where horrifying evidence could finally bring a madman to his knees. In the end, as American and British forces prepare to defend a sovereign and oil-rich Gulf nation against unwilling occupation, the terror is all too real. The world is once more balanced on the knife-edge of a full-blown nuclear confrontation.

Hawke must once more prepare to hurl himself deep into the nightmare visions of madmen. He must garner every ounce of strength, courage, and useful pain from his past. He must defeat this enemy or else forfeit the lives of untold thousands, including his own, to an axis of evil no historian could have ever predicted.

Packed with unrelenting action, glamour, and high style, and featuring the spectacular Alex Hawke, who time and again transports readers to the edge of danger, Pirate is a spellbinding thriller. Be prepared for Alex Hawke’s most daunting and heart-pounding mission yet. Here is an author who gets you in the palm of his hand . . . and then clenches his fist!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #556078 in Books
• Published on: 2005-08-16
• Formats: Audiobook, CD, Unabridged
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 14
• Binding: Audio CD

Review
"Ted Bell can really, really write."-- James Patterson

"Very Bondlike...."-- The New York Times

From the Inside Flap
"PIRATE is the third and best of the Hawke novels, an already brilliant series of derring-do and contemporary swashbuckling that contain more action and interesting characters than most books do in three." - Joe Hartlaub

About the Author
Ted Bell is the former chairman of the board and worldwide creative director of Young & Rubicam, one of the largest advertising agencies in the world. He is the New York Times bestselling author of Hawke, Assassin, Pirate, Spy and Nick of Time and makes his home in Palm Beach, Florida.

Customer Reviews

Big improvment in the "Hawke "series!
After reading "Hawk" I was a little leery about giving Mr. Bell another chance, but I can say I am glad I did! "Hawk" was not a bad story but the book needed an editor, thankfully the author is now working with a good editor as "Pirate" is much easier to read and does not suffer from over used words and situations. His writing has improved specifically his character development. In this outing super hero Alex Hawke has to save the world from another out of control mad man who is intent on controlling the world or destroying it (where did he come up with the plot?). The French are the bad guys, which is kind of fun given current world politicks-of course the French are always fun to make fun of! The Frogs make a deal with the Chinese in a plan to dominate the world, backed by there nuclear defenses. Hawke of course is the only man who can save the day, with little time left and a host of evil enemies trying to stop him. Nothing earth shaking here but if you like Dirk Pitt type of thrillers this might be your cup of tea. I also must recommend "A Map of Bones" awesome thriller/adventure! Very cool!

The Best One Yet
The third installment in the Alex Hawke adventure series is easily the best book yet, though there were still a few wrinkles that needed ironing out. Sometime spy Alex Hawke is called in to rescue an American spook who has fallen into the hands of the Chinese. The Chinese, who have become close friends with France, are up to something big, and it somehow involves beautiful actress Jet Moon, whose bed Alex is roused from when duty calls. Jet's father, General Sun-Yat Moon, is in league with her dubious boyfriend, Baron "Schatzi" Von Draxis. The French, the Chinese, and the German shipbuilder are up to no good, infiltrating the Arab empire of Oman as part of their plans. While Alex's ex-Scotland Yard investigator pal, Ambrose Congreve, travels to New York to hunt for witnesses to a decades-old murder related to the French-Chinese plot, armoire-sized Stokley Jones rescues Jet from her angry boyfriend and travels the world gathering clues with her, figuring out what the French and Chinese are up to. Meanwhile, Alex has to infiltrate an impregnable fortress to rescue a sultan and his harem from their enemies. There were a lot of loose ends to tie up, and just when it seemed like things were winding down, they kicked into overdrive, and Alex suddenly found himself in a race against time to save New York City.

Though the book wins points for handling a multi-faceted mystery, I have a few small complaints. First, though Ambrose Congreve is a charming character who adds wonderful texture to the back story, he was given far too large a role. Pages that were spent describing his fondness for the finer things would have been better spent on Alex, whose role in the book was minuscule. Alex is recovering from severe heartbreak, which is a challenging aspect to add to an adventure yarn, but merely leaving him alone for the bulk of the book made me feel cheated. I like Alex! This would have been a good time to delve into who he really is, maybe have him get back to some hobbies he had let slide in his grief over his wife's death, but he merely played a bit part instead. Stoke's part was just about right, and I always find myself smiling when he's on the page. My other complaint is about the action. Though Bell can write a pretty good action scene, this book had a tendency to leave the action when it was hot and not return until the dust was settling, cheating us out of the juiciest bits of the story. These scenes are utterly vital in an adventure novel, and he's doing well up to a point, but the final quarter of the important, tense scenes needs work. Two scenes I sorely missed in their entirety were Jet's family dinner that ended badly and the final takedown with Stoke and one of the bad guys at the very end. Shame on the editors for not insisting on a few more pages there.

There was a great deal of character development going on here...for Ambrose Congreve. The rest of the characters, especially the star, needed a little more attention. Bell is still relatively new at this, and he's taken on one heck of a story with this book, which was a smashing success. Its few imperfections mar the overall product very little. He's created a great cast of characters; so it's natural that I want to get to spend more time with some of them. Alex Hawke and friends are climbing the ranks, and they're high on my list of favorite adventure heroes.

PIRATE - It's great!
I picked this book up after listening to the Glenn Beck Program, on which Beck sponsored this book, and even had Bell on for an interview. So, that's the backstory.
The book itself is really a great "summer" read. By that, I mean that you can just turn off your brain, lie in the hammock, frink some cold lemonade and enjoy the thrilling adventure of Alex Hawke. But, trust me, don't start it in the evening -- you may have to call in to work the next day to finish it!