I had difficulty remembering what happened in the last book, which made the start of this one a challenge. Jon Bennett and Erin McCoy go to meet Palestinian leaders to facilitate peace talks, with a massive joint oil project as the incentive, when all hell breaks loose. Miraculously, with everyone dying around them, they escape with the key to moving ahead with Israeli peace talks in an undisclosed location, until someone figures out where they are. There was a lot of repetition and some political hyperbole that could have been omitted, making this a four star book. ( )

One of Rosenberg's early works I think. I like his books for their Christian world view and generally agree with the underlying premises. When he gets into calling military action and political intrigue, however, he is out of his element (more so on the former than the latter). That said, the books are an enjoyable if uncomplicated read. Given Rosenberg's political savvy and connections I would not be surprised to learn that some of his fiction has a basis in fact at some point in history, and sometimes there is a history lesson included which is always appreciated. Character development is a work in progress, but you can see the direction from here. Good stuff from a good point of view, just not as taught or realistic as is the norm.

Note: I listened to this book via Audible.com. The narrator, Patrick G. Lawlor, is no Dick Hill. Poor pacing, little sense of drama, and lack of character voice definition made it less enjoyable than it could have been. ( )

I finally got around to finishing this one. It was really pretty good once I got into it bow I'm ready to take on the next ones in the series. ( )

NO OF PAGES: 472 SUB CAT I: Apocalyptic Fiction SUB CAT II: SUB CAT III: DESCRIPTION: Rosenberg's sequel to the bestselling The Last Jihad (2002) is a near-clone of its predecessor: an action-packed Clancyesque political thriller with paper-thin characters. Presidential envoy Jon Bennett returns as the protagonist, along with his bodyguard and love interest, Erin McCoy, an "Uzi-toting, Arabic-speaking CIA supermodel." Their efforts to broker a Middle East peace, whose centerpiece is a fortuitously discovered deep oil reserve with the potential to make every Israeli and Palestinian wealthy, are literally blown to pieces when a suicide bomber claims the life of the U.S. secretary of state and Yasser Arafat himself. The surviving members of the American delegation, along with the Palestinian and Israeli entrepreneurs behind the oil-drilling venture, are scrambling frantically to escape from the Gaza Strip when civil war breaks out among the factions grappling to succeed Arafat as leader. Meanwhile, the sinister forces behind the attack seek to wreak further havoc by dispatching teams of terrorists to America while provoking the Israeli government to trigger a wider conflagration by invading the West Bank and Gaza. The author singularly fails to suspend readers' disbelief with his baffling decision to set the action in the year 2010 while simultaneously placing real-life events from 2003 such as the invasion of Iraq and the appointment of Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) as Palestinian prime minister seven years in the future. His efforts to make the book a relevant, "ripped-from-the-headlines" tale are already dated-the real Abu Mazen has resigned his post-and the fantasy solution to the intractable political conflict by a deus ex machina will strike many readers as silly.NOTES: Purchased from the Amazon Marketplace. SUBTITLE:

Good story line and very good characters. Was ahead of it's time before it was written. Always full of Christian view and morals. Very enjoyable. ( )