Twelve Days

December 22, 2014
After an effective opening, in which bestseller Berenson makes the victims of a terrorist attack real enough to give their deaths an emotional impact, his ninth John Wells thriller (after 2014’s The Counterfeit Agent) settles into familiar terrain. Everyone onboard a United Airlines flight from Mumbai to Newark, N.J., perishes when the plane is struck by a surface-to-air missile shortly after takeoff. Other disturbing events include the murder of a CIA station chief and, most ominously, the discovery of weapons-grade uranium in Istanbul. While the U.S. president accepts the conclusion that the nuclear material was from Iran and intended for use in an attack on America, Wells, a former CIA agent, believes otherwise. Wells is sure that Aaron Duberman, a billionaire casino owner, is responsible for the uranium and is attempting to trick the U.S. into invading Iran. The desperate efforts to avoid war make for an exciting page-turner, but the characters lack subtlety and the plot holds few surprises. Agent: Heather Schroder, ICM.

Starred review from January 15, 2015
John Wells returns in another exciting and entirely plausible verge-of-war thriller.The Iranians are apparently about to get the bomb, and the U.S. is ready to go to war to stop them. But is it true? Too late, ex-CIA agent Wells discovers a plot to dupe the two nations into a needless war. Two commercial jets explode, one of them over Mumbai. Almost 300 innocent travelers are killed. The Iranian government disavows responsibility, but perhaps it's sending America a warning: Don't mess with us. Readers of his earlier adventures know that Wells is a convert to Islam, adding one more layer of complication to a life fraught with danger. His deadly adversaries include an Israeli agent code-named Salome, an accomplished killer who wants the U.S. to believe that Iran has amassed enough highly enriched uranium to build an atomic bomb. If Salome gets her way, Israel's best ally will destroy its worst enemy. Wells will do everything in his power to stop the plan. So Salome wants Wells dead, but she finds him "harder to kill than a Negev spider." Despite her uncharitable opinion, Wells is a sympathetic hero who works with CIA agents to defuse a likely disaster. Eventually, "America's fate"-Iran's as well, obviously-"depends on three men in Bellville, South Africa. Two can't stand each other." Berenson is a master at building tension, with a ticking clock that's built into the title-America's attack on Iran's nuclear facilities is only 12 days away. This well-written and fast-moving novel delivers more than a good plot. It illustrates how in the midst of regional chaos, a great power can jump to calamitous conclusions. This one is well-worth the thriller enthusiast's time, which holds true for all the novels Berenson has written to date.

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Starred review from January 1, 2015
Berenson delivers the slam-bang conclusion he left readers craving at the end of The Counterfeit Agent (2014). Freelance spy John Wells survived the melee that concluded that first installment in this two-parter, but the real business was left undone: Will Wells and his strange bedfellowsVinnie Duto, the power-hungry, former CIA director turned senator, and Ellis Shafer, veteran agency analyst waiting for a pink slipfind a way to expose the plot of billionaire Aaron Duberman to incite a war between the U.S. and Iran? The president has swallowed the bait, issuing an ultimatum to Iran: allow the U.S. to examine its nuclear facilities within 12 days, or it's war. Wells, Duto, and Shafer know Duberman and his associate, the mysterious Salome, are behind the scam, but they don't know where Salome got the enriched uranium that set off the crisis. Track back that connection, and the president will have to listen; fail, and another Middle East fiasco explodes. Lots of thriller writers know how to work a ticking clock, and lots more come to the genre with some experience in international politics, but few put the two together as effectively as Berenson, former New York Times reporter, does in this compelling, globe-trotting time bomb of a novel. Action fans will get all they came for, as Wells slashes his way from Russia to Israel to Egypt and on to South Africa for the High Noonstyle finale, but those looking for genuine insight into the subtleties of the geopolitical chess game will be equally satisfied.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

September 1, 2014

Former New York Times reporter Berenson follows up eight previous John Wells novels, including the Edgar Award-winning The Faithful Spy, with a narrative hinging on a plot to compel the president to attack Iran. Wells has 12 days to prove that the whole thing is a setup.

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