At the outset of bestseller Bell’s exciting seventh thriller featuring MI6 agent Alex Hawke (after 2010’s Warlord), Alex learns that his lost love, Anastasia Korsakova, the daughter of the present-day yet recently dead Russian czar, is still alive, held prisoner in a high-security Siberian KGB facility. While Alex fears he’s being lured into a trap, he travels to Siberia, where Anastasia gives him their son, three-year-old Alexi, for safekeeping. Back in England, Alex throws himself into fatherhood while fending off assassins from an organization of Russian hard-liners who blame Alex for the czar’s death. Meanwhile, an Iranian scientist known as Darius has built a computer dubbed Perseus that has almost attained parity with human intelligence. Alex must find Darius and Perseus in order to foil their dastardly plan for humanity. While the two distinct threats make for a sometimes disjointed plot, a terrific, final naval battle shows Alex at his fighting finest. Agent: Peter Lampack, Peter Lampack Agency. (Mar.)
Phantom is a book you may not want to put down. . . . Hawke is the protagonist of this novel, and he is as cool a customer as this reviewer has run across for some time. — Newbern Sun Journal on Phantom
“A thoroughly enjoyable spy novel . . . warm weather makes one want to dive into the summer beachside books and Ted Bell’s Phantom is a great start.” — Iron Mountain Daily News on Phantom
“This is a scary book . . . Bell never lets up on the action in this very well written tale. . . . I had to pause to take a breath before seeing what came next.” — Suspense Magazine on Phantom
“A terrific nonstop action tale . . . Gripping from the vivid Disney World disaster until the final confrontation with a brilliant Phantom.” — The Mystery Gazette on Phantom
“There’s new dimension to Alexander Hawke, the James Bond-like MI6 operative whom men want to be and women want to bed. . . . Bell keeps the tone light and the level of derring-do high. Fine escapist fare.” — Library Journal on Phantom
“[Phantom] keeps the reader involved with its charmingly unflappable hero . . . as well as the ease with which it unfolds on multiple continents, on land and in air.” — Kirkus Reviews on Phantom
“[Hawke’s] most personal mission yet. . . . the story is tense and exciting. A perfect read for Clive Cussler fans.” — Booklist on Phantom
“Exciting . . . A terrific, final naval battle shows Alex at his fighting finest.” — Publishers Weekly on Phantom
“Hawke is . . . strong, shrewd and savvy, with an aplomb not seen since James Bond. In other words, Bond, eat your heart out . . . there’s a new spy in town. — NPR on Warlord
“As enlightening as it is scary. . . . Ted Bell packs so many action-amped scenarios into Alex Hawke’s seventh adventure, it’s so often hard to catch one’s breath. If you crave spy thrills with a Bond on steroids, visit the bloody British world of Ted Bell’s Alex Hawke.” — Rankin Ledger on Phantom
A thoroughly enjoyable spy novel . . . warm weather makes one want to dive into the summer beachside books and Ted Bell’s Phantom is a great start.
Iron Mountain Daily News on Phantom
Phantom is a book you may not want to put down. . . . Hawke is the protagonist of this novel, and he is as cool a customer as this reviewer has run across for some time.
Newbern Sun Journal on Phantom
[Hawke’s] most personal mission yet. . . . the story is tense and exciting. A perfect read for Clive Cussler fans.
Hawke is . . . strong, shrewd and savvy, with an aplomb not seen since James Bond. In other words, Bond, eat your heart out . . . there’s a new spy in town.
As enlightening as it is scary. . . . Ted Bell packs so many action-amped scenarios into Alex Hawke’s seventh adventure, it’s so often hard to catch one’s breath. If you crave spy thrills with a Bond on steroids, visit the bloody British world of Ted Bell’s Alex Hawke.
This is a scary book . . . Bell never lets up on the action in this very well written tale. . . . I had to pause to take a breath before seeing what came next.
Suspense Magazine on Phantom
A terrific nonstop action tale . . . Gripping from the vivid Disney World disaster until the final confrontation with a brilliant Phantom.
The Mystery Gazette on Phantom
When a series of bizarre events wreaks havoc across the continental U.S., ex-CIA operative Alex Hawke must pair with crime-fighting pals to stop a mad scientist who has unleashed a mysterious force. While Bell's story often seems over the top, narrator John Shea delivers a compelling performance that manages to bring the material down to earth. Listeners will immediately connect with Shea's gritty, earnest tone. His well-rounded and relatable character portrayals make the story all the more urgent and immediate. Shea has the ability to make the fantastic seem entirely plausible, and his knack for engaging listeners is at work from the very first sentence. L.B. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine
Strange disasters are occurring around the world. These disasters include the unexplained explosion of ABM missiles in their silos in Alaska and the unlikely sinking of a U.S. cruise ship by a Russian submarine in the Caribbean. The supervillain behind the mishaps is a monolithic supercomputer called Perseus, which sits 2001 -like beneath the Persian Gulf. In his latest fanciful globetrotting adventure featuring British counterintelligence star Alex Hawke, Bell (Warlord , 2010, etc.) projects a future in which Artificial Intelligence has advanced to the point where its human creators can only hope to contain it. In fact, Perseus' increasingly nervous quadriplegic inventor, Dr. Darius Saffari, who answers to the government of Iran, can only pretend to control his creation anymore. The world is at risk. Before Hawke can short-circuit the evil black tower, he must survive a dangerous personal mission in Siberia to rescue his true love Anastasia, long thought dead. In a previous adventure, he killed an old-style imperialist ruler embraced as the new Tsar. Here, vengeful soldiers who remain loyal to the Tsar target both Hawke and Alexei, the 3-year-old son he never knew he had.
A long novel that is short on suspense but still keeps the reader involved with its charmingly unflappable hero and narrative quirks, as well as the ease with which it unfolds on multiple continents, on land and sea and in air.
