Book Review and Giveaway: The Tenth Circle by Jon Land

Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received this book, free of charge, from the author,via Bostick Communications, for review purposes on this blog. No other compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post about it

Welcome to our 2nd post, for our stop on The Tenth Circle Book Blog Tour!

I hope you were able to read Jon's guest post earlier today on this blog!


the tenth circle cover


Synopsis: 

1590: An entire colony of British settlers vanishes from their settlement on Roanoke Island, seemingly into thin air.

1872: The freighter Marie Celeste is found drifting at sea off Gibraltar, its entire crew and passengers gone missing without a trace.

But what if there’s a connection between two of the greatest historical mysteries ever? And what if the roots of that connection lie in a crazed plot to destroy the United States as we know it today?

Those are the questions confronting Blaine McCracken as he takes up the trail of small time preacher Jeremiah Rule whose hateful rhetoric has done big time damage by inflaming an entire people half a world away, resulting in a series of devastating terrorist attacks stateside. Rule, though, isn’t acting alone. A shadowy cabal is pulling his strings, unaware they are creating a monster soon to spin free of their control.
McCracken has just returned from pulling off the impossible in Iran, ridding the world of one terrible threat only to return home to face another. Isolated in a way he’s never been before and now hunted himself, he’ll have to rely on skills and allies both old and new to get to the heart of a plan aimed at unleashing no less than the Tenth Circle of Hell. This as he contends with a failed congressman intent on changing the country to fit his own vision and an Iranian assassin bent on revenge.

Blaine’s desperate path across country and continent takes him into the past where the answers he needs lie among the missing Roanoke colonists and the contents of the Marie Celeste’s cargo holds. Those secrets alone hold the means to stop the Tenth Circle from closing. And as the bodies tumble in his wake, as the clock ticks down to an unthinkable maelstrom, McCracken and Johnny Wareagle fight to save the United States from a war the country didn’t even know it was fighting, but might well lose.

Excerpt:

CHAPTER 3
Washington, DC; two months earlier

“You’re kidding, right?” Blaine McCracken said after the Israeli he knew only as “David” finished.

“You come highly recommended, Mr. McCracken.  Back home you’re considered a legend.”

“Another word for dinosaur.”

“But far from extinct.  And my American friends tell me you’re the only one they believe can get this done.”

“Meaning I’d have to succeed where two governments have failed.”

David shrugged, the gesture further exaggerating the size of his neck that se>emed a stubby extension of his shoulders and trapezious muscles.  He wasn’t a tall man but unnaturally broad through the upper body.  McCracken couldn’t make out his eyes well in the darkness, but imagined them to be furtive and noncommittal.

They’d met at the Observation Deck of the Washington Monument.  Closed to the public for repairs indefinitely, but still accessible by workmen, though not at night, always McCracken’s favorite time to view Washington.  He liked imagining what was going on in offices where lights still burned, plans were being hatched and fates determined.  There was so much about the city he hated but plenty from which he couldn’t detach himself.  In the vast majority of those offices, officials were trying to do good; at least, they believed they were.

McCracken found himself wondering which of those offices David had come here from; it would be State or Defense in the old days, across the river in Langley just as often.  These days it was Homeland Security, the catch-all and watch word that got people nodding in silence, Homeland’s offices spread out all over the city proper and thus responsible for an untold number of the lights that still burned.

A few work lamps provided the only illumination inside the gutted Observation Deck, riddled with a musty basement-like smell of old, stale concrete and wood rot mixed with fresh lumber and sawdust which covered the exposed floor like a floating rug.  David had sneezed a few times upon first entering, passing it off as allergies.

“It’s not that we’ve failed,” David told him, “it’s that all the plans we’ve considered have been rejected out of hand.  We’ve come to you for something non-traditional that no one expects.”
“You’ve got a lot of faith in me.”
“If anyone can do it, it’s you.  Otherwise, we will have no choice but to try something that is doomed to fail and perhaps even make things worse.  But our hands our tied.  With Iran so close to getting their bomb, the choice is gone.”

“Your name’s not really David, is it?” McCracken asked the Israeli.

“Why would you think that?”

>“Because the last few times I’ve worked with your country, my contacts were named David too.  A reference to David and Goliath maybe?”

A flicker of a smile crossed the Israeli’s lips.  “I’m told you had a plan.”

“No, what I’ve got is an idea.  It’s risky, dangerous, and I haven’t even broached it to the powers at be here.”

“Because you don’t think they’d be interested?”

“Because they haven’t asked.”  McCracken looked out through the window at the twinkling office lights again, already fewer of them than just a few minutes before, imagining the kind of things being discussed after office hours had concluded.  “The only time my phone rings these days is when the SEALS or Delta have already passed on the mission, with good reason this time.”

“We’re asking,” said David.  “You, not them.  And we’ll provide you with the right resources, any resources you require.”

McCracken gave David a longer look, the younger man’s thick nest of curly hair making him seem vulnerable and innocent at the same time when neither was true.  “Tell me you’re ready to fight fire with fire.  Tell me that’s what you meant about making the right resources available.”
David seemed to grasp his meaning immediately.

 “And if we are?”

Blaine smiled.


Review: This was a roller coaster read. I had never read any of Land's books before, and I have to say he knows his way around a spy thriller! The plot and characters will keep you on the roller coaster of a read, and I have to warn you- read EVERYTHING. There is no skipping around in this book- all details are important and characters may NOT be what you think! If you love books with strong lead characters, a great team to support them and lots of mayhem, you'll love this book!

About the Author:
Jon Land is the award-winning, critically acclaimed author of 36 books, including the bestselling Caitlin Strong Texas Ranger series that includes Strong Enough to Die, Strong Justice, Strong at the Break, Strong Vengeance and, most recently, Strong Rain Falling. The Tenth Circle marks the second return engagement of his longtime series hero Blaine McCracken on the heels of last year’s Pandora’s Temple which was nominated for a Thriller Award and received the 2013 International Book Award for Best Adventure Thriller. Jon’s first nonfiction book, Betrayal, meanwhile, was named Best True Crime Book of 2012 by Suspense Magazine and won a 2012 International Book Award for Best True Crime Book. He is currently working on Strong Darkness, the next entry in the Caitlin Strong to be published in September of 2014. He can be found on the Web at www.jonlandbooks.com, .https://www.facebook.com/jon.land.33 and https://twitter.com/JonDLand

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Comments

  1. Sounds like such an exciting ride! Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts on it with us.

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  2. Can't thank you enough for the great review, as well as the guest post that looks great--this font is very easy on the eyes! Short, succinct and to the point coverage that hits all the high notes and encapsulates the book's strengths. Do you post on Amazon? Would be great to see your words shared there as well and look for STRONG DARKNESS, my next Caitlin Strong thriller, just a few months down the road! Jon

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    Replies
    1. thanks for stopping in Jon! And thanks for the great compliments! Will post on Amazon when I get time today!

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