Review: Spy Action in a Global Setting
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 7, 2013
Rating: 3.5 StarsI have mixed feelings about `Tsunami Connection', however part of that stems from my political sensitivities. This book is essentially an action-packed spy novel mostly centered around a Mossad agent named Kefira. I commend the author for weaving so many very recent current events like the coup in Egypt and the civil war in Syria into the narrative. However, being as I'm part Egyptian, I spent the early chapters of the book too emotionally worked up about the references to the Israeli - Palestinian conflict and the overthrow of the Egyptian government to really get into the story. However, I don't think the author intended to take a political stance one way or the other, and when I spoke to the author I was reassured that he had already intended to bring in a character to represent the Palestinian perspective into the next book of the series.Fortunately, this book was not about Israel and Palestine or anything like that and the book quickly moved us from country to country and allowed us to visit with people from a multitude of cultures: Indonesia, Argentina, Israel, Egypt, and Russia just to name a few. This must have taken a huge amount of research to accomplish (and possibly even experiences from personal travels). The research was very evident and the author did put a lot of effort into capturing the different traits and habits of various cultures. As someone who really knows Egypt, there were a couple very minor details that struck me as imperfect, but they were so minor even a foreigner visiting Egypt would not notice the discrepancies between the book's descriptions and reality.I did enjoy the second half of the book better than the first as that's when the action picked up (and when I'd gotten somewhat over my initial response to the early references to politics). Kefira seemed to bounce from one Romance to the next at first, but she settled down into one relationship by the end which I appreciated. I also liked that the book was being led by a strong woman. I do wish that she was portrayed to be just a touch more competent though. It seemed at times that she was driven more by `instinct' then by skill and she let her emotions get the better of her training more than once in the book. With that said, she was portrayed as being a good agent and I did come to like Kefira. I also liked the mentions of futuristic technology and the use of spy tech throughout. A lot of this technology will probably become reality in the near future (cloaking devices for example) and some of it, such as shape charges, is already a reality (although as far as I know, shape charges are not currently used in the way that the book suggested they could be).I personally would not read the next book in the series as I don't care to get myself worked up over Middle East politics and cultural stereotypes again, but I imagine that someone who enjoys spy novels and books that take place on a global setting would find this an enjoyable read. Potential readers should note that there are a few adult sexual scenes as well as a bit of violence in places.I am grateful to the author for providing me with a free copy of `Tsunami Connection' in exchange for my honest review.