TSAR by Ted Bell

First published in 2008

There are espionage writers like John Le Carre, Robert Littell, and Len Deighton who craft credible stories about memorable characters. There are espionage writers like Ian Fleming who create a larger-than-life hero whose adventures aren't particularly credible but are nonetheless great fun. And then there's Ted Bell, who brings us Alex Hawke: an over-the-top version of James Bond whose adventures in Tsar aren't even within spitting distance of credibility and whose prose doesn't quite reach the level of decent pulp fiction.

To some extent, I viewed Tsar as a guilty pleasure: a fast, easy read that featured plenty of preposterous action and a sharply defined (if incredibly simplistic) view of good and evil. The novel reads like a parody of a James Bond novel and some of the events Bell imagines (like Hawke's encounter with Putin in a Russian prison where Putin is scheduled to be impaled) are hilarious. Viewed in that light, Tsar produced enough chuckles to make the reading experience tolerable. Unfortunately, Bell's prose style too often falls flat, Alex Hawke is annoyingly self-righteous, the villain is a cartoon, and the "threat" to world security that Hawke confronts is so ridiculous that the novel fails even as parody.

As much as Bell seems to be positioning Hawke as the next James Bond, he just doesn't cut it. If you're looking for a quick, easy action story, Tsar will help you kill some time, but you'd do better to pick up an old Ian Fleming and read or reread the genuine article.

NOT RECOMMENDED