The Power Couple by Alex Berenson

Published by Simon & Schuster on February 9, 2021

Most novels that involve a kidnapped child — “a parent’s worst nightmare,” the blurbs usually say — emphasize parental anxiety. Those novels tend to be intolerably weepy and overly obvious in their manipulation of the reader’s emotions. They also tend to be formulaic. Either a resilient parent or a determined cop, or both acting together, foil the captor just before their child is about to be defiled or murdered, The End.

Alex Berenson gives the kidnapped child novel a new twist. Kira Unsworth is a lucky teen vacationing with her brother and parents in Europe. Rebecca works for the FBI and Brian is a coder for the NSA. Those jobs have decent pay — and they need it, the way Rebecca burns through money to signal her social status — but their financial security came from the two million dollars that Brian made, out of the blue, by developing and selling a gambling app.

Kira meets a young stud in a bar in Paris, then agrees to meet him again the next evening in a bar in Barcelona. She thinks she is being careful during her drinking and dancing spree, but she ends up being kidnapped. Her frantic parents use their law enforcement pull to get the authorities to search for her, but the captors were smooth and didn’t leave behind any obvious clues. Kira frets that she’s not being held for ransom but will be sold to a sheik as a hot American sex toy.

The first half of The Power Couple is interesting but ordinary, somewhat formulaic without making a concerted attempt to tug the reader’s heartstrings. In fact, sympathizing with either of the parents would be difficult, because they are both unlikable. That’s what makes the first half interesting. Rebecca is a workaholic who runs the marriage and (until he made two million bucks) always viewed her husband as being insufficiently ambitious and perhaps a bit slow-witted. Brian probably does lack ambition but he views his wife as an emasculating, power-hungry woman who doesn’t appreciate the contributions he brings to the table. Apart from decent parenting, Brian’s contributions are mostly nonexistent before he contributes money from the app, but that doesn’t stop Brian from resenting his wife for resenting him.

The story changes completely in the second half for reasons that, to avoid spoilers, I won’t discuss. The plot kicks off in a new and much better direction, encouraging the reader to rethink the reason for Kira’s kidnapping. The characters remain unsympathetic, apart from Kira who demonstrates some ass-kicking resilience that she probably inherited from her mother. If anything, her parents become even more unlikable: Brian, because he becomes more callous and self-centered (apart from his apparent love of his kids); and Kira, because (like most thriller cops) she’s quick to abuse her authority when the law gets in her way, and she’s more interested in vengeance than justice.

The novel’s ending is a bit disappointing — it's predictable and anticlimactic — but that doesn’t detract from the better chapters that precede it. This isn’t Alex Berenson’s best book, but the familiar beginning and disappointing ending bookend an entertaining plot that rises above the typical kidnapped child thriller.

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The Deceivers by John Berenson

Published by G.P. Putnam's Sons on February 6, 2018

I didn’t think much of Alex Berenson’s first John Wells novel, but I’ve found his recent books to be surprisingly entertaining. The notion of a former Ranger who converted to Islam assures that the protagonist will stand out from the crowd of ex-Rangers who populate thrillers. The way the conversion came about is credible, and the character illustrates the truth that any religion can be used as a pretext for committing evil acts. A right-wing senator in The Deceivers who rails against Islam is uncomfortably familiar with his America First rhetoric, and just as much of a blowhard as all the ideologues who have kick-started their political careers by stirring up hatred and anger.

Gamal al-Masry has never done anything to suggest his interest in carrying out terrorist actions, other than to make Facebook comments that condemn America’s action in bombing his homeland. Gamal is radicalized by his cousin Shakir, a drug dealer who has little interest in politics or religion. Fearing that he is about to be sent to prison, Shakir agrees to set up Gamal in what he assumes will be an arrest prior to the execution of a bogus terrorist plot. The terrorist attack in Dallas that follows is not at all what Shakir expected.

Shakir isn’t the only person who is deceived. The villains in the story are not Islamic terrorists but manipulative Russians who are trying to divide America by stirring up hatred against Islam. That seems plausible in light of news stories about Russian deception and Russian attempts to sow chaos in American democracy that have dominated headlines over the past year. A Russian woman who pretends to love an unwanted veteran is instrumental in the second aspect of the Russian scheme. The veteran happens to be a skilled sniper.

Wells is tasked with getting to the bottom of the Dallas attack. To that end, he pursues leads to Ecuador, Columbia, and Mexico before he turns his attention to Montana and Texas. He’s joined by a CIA buddy and former Marine who made an appearance in The Prisoner. A certain amount of bureaucratic in-fighting involving Wells’ current and former CIA handlers adds another level of realism to the story.

The plot is clever and reasonably original. The Deceivers incorporates traditional spy novel intrigue into the plot, including an American mole who is passing valuable information to Russia, while adding intrigue in the Kremlin, taking the form of a power struggle. Russian President Fedin could easily be based on Putin. American President Duto, a former CIA agent, stands up to Russia, and is clearly not based on Trump. Berenson takes the time to create all of the important characters in full.

The story moves quickly, as a thriller should, but not mindlessly. Berenson brings enough depth to the subject matter to make The Deceivers a worthy entry in a series that keeps getting better.

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The Prisoner by Alex Berenson

Published by G.P. Putnam's Sons on January 31, 2017

I read the first couple of books in this series when they came out and wasn’t impressed. The Prisoner makes me think I should go back and read the ones I missed. Compared to the early novels, Alex Berenson has sharpened his prose, honed his storytelling ability, and strengthened his characters.

John Wells is no longer running around the mountains of Afghanistan. Now he’s wandering around the woods in Montana, at least until he learns he has a baby. That motivates him to wander around the woods in New Hampshire. Wells’ former boss, a power-mad CIA director, has just won the presidency by declaring war on the press. Wells plans to ignore it all and stay retired until he gets a phone call from Bulgaria. Then he’s back in the game.

In the grand tradition of spy novels, Wells is told that a mole is leaking information to Islamic State. The evidence is convincing but the president doesn’t want to believe it could be one of his top guys. The intel comes from overheard comments made by a terrorist in a Bulgarian prison that the US uses to hold high-value prisoners. To root out the mole, Wells decides to infiltrate the prison, posing as a captured terrorist trying to get the source to give up the mole’s name. Nobody expects that to happen, but the hope is that the mole will expose himself while trying to shut down Wells.

The novel has three plot threads. The first focuses on Wells, as he infiltrates the Bulgarian prison. The second follows a terrorist who is producing sarin gas for the Islamic State. The third is the mole, whose identity the reader learns long before the good guys discover it. The three threads come together as terrorists prepare to release the sarin gas at a location that will serve the Islamic State’s goal of spreading terror that is both real and symbolic.

I admire the vivid and painful truths that Alex Berenson illustrates about recent history, primarily through a character who misuses those truths to justify his betrayal. I appreciate the fact that Wells, unlike too many thriller heroes, has a conscience and doesn’t shrug off killing bad guys with “he had it coming” and innocents with “collateral damage.”

At the same time, quite a bit of the traitor’s character development comes in a lengthy expository narrative that slows the novel’s pace. Most of the novel, however, particularly when it focuses on Wells and in scenes that follow the terrorists, moves briskly. This is an action novel rather than a novel of intrigue, but the action is credible. Wells solves most problems with his brain, not with the superhuman fighting ability that most thriller heroes seem to possess. The “race against the clock to thwart a terrorist attack” plot nevertheless generates a fair amount of action, and Wells is certainly capable of defending himself. All of that makes The Prisoner an engaging thriller.

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