Yaay! I am achieving one of my New Year Resolutions – Reading. Last month started late and I promised myself to read two books, I finished the second book on January 31st. Makofi… Pa…Pa…Pa! (Funga! Fungua!). I may sound excited but it is the small wins that matter in life, right? This month I will read 4 books.

Here are the books I read:

The Teeth of the Tiger – Tom Clancy

Tom Clancy, for me, is up there with James Patterson and Jeffrey Archer as some of my favourite writers. The books you just can’t pass on the street (zile za soo) or online. He has never disappointed and he didn’t disappoint with this book. He just waxes a straightforward story. Those stories where you somehow know how it is going to end, but you have no way of knowing how.

The Teeth of The Tiger is an intelligence thriller which starts from the top. In Rome, a Mossad chief is assassinated and the murder piques the interest of the Campus, (now, The Campus is a secret intelligence agency that doesn’t follow any rules, but are guided by lots of intelligence. More like kwekwe but smarter). The Campus uses the most intelligent people since it runs a Financial cover, and all recruits, killers or not have to be smart, above smart.

Jack Ryan Jr., the son of former president Jack Ryan (tuseme Jimmy Kibaki was huko), soon discovers the Campus’ operations. Wanting to serve his country in the post-9/11 world, he is hired by the agency as an analyst. Elsewhere, Brian Caruso, a cousin of Jack, is a U.S. Marine returning from Afghanistan to be decorated for his achievements in battle. Dominic Caruso, his brother, is an FBI agent who, while investigating a kidnapping of a little girl, finds her in a tub raped and killed. Caruso kills the suspect, in very high precision. The Caruso brothers are soon recruited into a Campus strike team, chosen for their ability to kill enemies in cold blood.

However, Brian is unsure of the morality of carrying out preemptive assassinations, even against terrorists. This changes when radical Islamics cross the U.S.-Mexico border and attack several suburban malls. This part reminded me a lot of the Westgate attack where terrorists just shot people. (This book will also help you understand what goes on in the terrorists’ minds when they shoot people). Brian and Dominic happen to be at one of the malls when the attack occurs. Although they efficiently find and kill all four shooters, dozens of people are killed; similar massacres occur at most of the other targeted sites. When a child dies in his arms after the attack, Brian abandons his earlier moral qualms. The Campus decides the brothers are ready and implements a “reconnaissance-by-fire” strategy to flush out the terrorist leaders.

How they do that is something you should read for yourself, but it doesn’s involve guns – it’s science. 🙂

Deliver us from Evil – David Baldacci

David Baldacci is another writer who weaves stories like it ain’t your business. I don’t know what that is, but I think it is quite cool. No? Deliver Us from Evil is not a gospel book. It doesn’t talk about God, apart from the areas where a girl, Reggie Campion—28 and gorgeous, kills someone and prays to God to understand why she did it. You see, Reggie is a member of a secret vigilante group that looks for heartless mass killers who killed lots of people in the Soviet and Nazi eras.

That’s how it starts, Reggie killing such an old timer who had thought he was above the law. The rest of the novel is focused on the pursuit of another killer, Fadir Kuchin.

Evan Waller, aka Fadir Kuchin, aka “the Butcher of Kiev,” aka “the Ukrainian psychopath,” is one of those deep-dyed villains a certain kind of fiction can’t do without. Serving with distinction as part of the Soviet Union’s KGB, he joyfully and indiscriminately killed thousands. Now, many years later, posing as a successful businessman, he’s vacationing in Provence, France where, unbeknownst to him, two separate clandestine operations are being mounted by people who do not regard him with favor. Reggie’s group, which she is heading, and another more official but secret group led by the studly, tall Shaw. Okay, Shaw seems to be one of the people I hate, or jealous about. He is too handsome.

While their respective teams reconnoitre and jockey for position, studly boy meets gorgeous girl. Monster-hunters are famous for having trust issues, but clearly, these are drawn to each other(what would you expect?). Shaw saves Reggie’s life. She returns the favour (hapa kule). The attraction deepens and heats up to the point where team members on both sides grow unsettled by the loss of focus. This actually almost costs them, because at some point Waller kidnaps them and plays a hunting game with them. More like Tom Cholmondeley hunting Kenyans in his expansive ranch, with dogs and guns. People die.

In the end, the stalkers strike, bullets fly, screams curdle the blood, love has its innings and a monster does what a monster’s got to do.

This kept me glued.

If you need any of these books, tell me the book yoiu will be giving me in return and I will be happy to do the exchange. Hakuna vitu za bure 🙂

And, if you have read a book that you would like to share with these good people, contact me and we will make that possible. Sharing is caring!