Without Warning by Joel Rosenberg

Part 3 of the JB Collins trilogy picks up a few months after where part 2 (The First Hostage) left off - the rescue of the US President who had been kidnapped by ISIS.

JB Collins is the war correspondent for the NY Times. The award winning journalist is not above getting his hands dirty when it comes to revealing to the public that which the current administration seems intent on hiding, minimizing, or flat out ignoring. ISIS is a threat to the US and its leaders don't just need to be brought to justice. They need to be eliminated. Collins has seen it in the eyes of the ISIS leader, Abu Khalif, whom he has interviewed and is the only western individual to actually have seen Khalif in the flesh (I know, a take-no-prisoners hawk as a NY Times reporter seems a bit far fetched, but give Rosenberg some slack).

A few months earlier, Collins was instrumental in the President's rescue. A grateful President has invited Collins and his brother Matt to sit with the First Lady at the annual State of the Union Address. While appreciative of the efforts of the US security forces for his rescue, he still will not utter anything synonymous with 'radical' or 'extremist'. He prefers to use the drone force instead of sweeping in with insurmountable ground forces to wipe out ISIS, which is what JB vociferously encourages the President to do. To no avail.

During the SOTU address, mortars and howitzer shells, some loaded with sarin gas, reign down on the Capitol. While most of the heads of state escape, hundreds of others are killed. The next day, horror is inflicted on several other cities in a coordinated attack. Finally, because Khalif is seriously pissed off at Collins, a hit squad is dispatched to his family home in Maine.

And we aren't even to page 100 yet.

The President still neglects an all out offensive on ISIS so Collins secretly heads to the mideast in order to offer some help to security forces in Israel, Egypt, and Jordan (remember, he's one of the few to have ever seen Khalif in person). With relentless tenacity, a plausible trail on Khalif's location has been traced.

I'll admit. I'm a bit out of Rosenberg's loop. I had read and reviewed a number of his earlier books noting how prescient his stories were in regard to current day situations that ended up actually happening usually within a year of publication. While I'm not turned off by Rosenberg's evangelism and Christian witnessing, I guess I let it influence my staying current with his books. The JB Collins trilogy being a noteworthy omission in my reading enjoyment. Evangelism aside, Rosenberg writes some of the most compelling political thrillers that are centered in the political powder keg that is the middle east.  The first chapter tells us that the President's rescue (The First Hostage) had taken place a couple months earlier to which I sort of muttered to myself, 'looks like I've missed something here.' Does knowing the outcome of Part 2 mean I won't read it? Storytelling is in the details and Rosenberg has the details down pat. I mean, the audience always knew who the killer was, but we still watched Columbo. I like a good political thriller yarn, so I may just go back to parts 1 and 2. Even though I know just how thrilling part 3 ends.

ECD