Kenneth Eade's Blog - Posts Tagged "guantanamo"
Review: A Patriot's Act
Full review from Self Publishing Review:
A Patriot’s Act by Kenneth Eade is a tight, legal thriller and the second book in the Brent Marks series. When Ahmed, a naturalized US citizen of Iraqi descent is mistakenly held by the government and sent to Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp, Brent Marks, a top Californian attorney, is hired by the accused’s wife to free him. But Marks is faced with the mammoth task of fighting against the American government in a world that has the power to make any evidence – or person – disappear rather too conveniently. He must beat the very system he believes in to get justice for his client.
Eade, a lawyer by profession, weaves legal dialogue, corruption and international action to create a pacey read with echoes of Grisham, Baldacci and Clancy nipping at his writing heels. Law issues as well as forensics and police procedures are clearly explained with such authority as to add gritty realism in and out of the courthouse, but it’s within the court drama that Eade really packs some punch. With some success with the first book of the series, Predatory Kill, this second saga looks sure to satisfy his growing base of readers.
A Patriot’s Act by Kenneth Eade is a tight, legal thriller and the second book in the Brent Marks series. When Ahmed, a naturalized US citizen of Iraqi descent is mistakenly held by the government and sent to Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp, Brent Marks, a top Californian attorney, is hired by the accused’s wife to free him. But Marks is faced with the mammoth task of fighting against the American government in a world that has the power to make any evidence – or person – disappear rather too conveniently. He must beat the very system he believes in to get justice for his client.
Eade, a lawyer by profession, weaves legal dialogue, corruption and international action to create a pacey read with echoes of Grisham, Baldacci and Clancy nipping at his writing heels. Law issues as well as forensics and police procedures are clearly explained with such authority as to add gritty realism in and out of the courthouse, but it’s within the court drama that Eade really packs some punch. With some success with the first book of the series, Predatory Kill, this second saga looks sure to satisfy his growing base of readers.
Review: A Patriot's Act
Full review from Midwest Book Reviews:
While readers needn't hold familiarity with Kenneth Eade's prior courtroom thriller A Predatory Kill, be forewarned: such a familiarity will provide background for A Patriot's Act, which continues Brent Marks' globe-trotting international encounters; and newcomers who enjoy this book will turn to its predecessor for another well-grounded, involving legal thriller.
A courtroom would seem the last place to find Marks when a naturalized American citizen goes missing in Iraq, but it prompts him to battle the U.S. government with its own Constitution in search of justice.Right-click here to download pictures. To help protect your privacy, Outlook prevented automatic download of this picture from the Internet.
And events don't stop in the courtroom's boundaries or jurisdiction, either, as they lead to detention and torture in Guantanamo Bay and involve an American citizen who is being pressed for information he doesn't have. In fact, the story opens with the bang of this detention, torture, and its ultimate result. It doesn't end there - so readers are afforded little opportunity to stop reading before they find themselves immersed in the 'who, what, where and why' of what evolves into an international thriller spiced with legal and business concerns.
A wife's determination to locate her missing husband in Iraq against all odds fuels the events to follow, which assume a winding progression of political, legal, and personal encounters.
Be forewarned: there are periods of (and graphic accounts) torture; and while these scenes are in keeping with both the plot and real-world events, that doesn't mean that A Patriot's Act is a recommendation for the light thriller reader. Sometimes the juxtapositions of life at Guantanamo and events back home in the States proves both striking and jarring: "As Ahmed choked and sputtered, the nurse put a mask over his face, and he threw up in the mask, covering his face with his own vomit. Brent placed a luscious bite of Lobster Thermidor in his mouth, savoring the creamy mixture. Debbie, the blonde bombshell, looked on affectionately."
It's all about delicate balance of power and experience - something gone awry in A Patriot's Act, and something explored through intimate descriptions: "Debbie’s home cooking was great, but the company was even better. As the candles dwindled, they drained the bottle of Pinot Grigio. Brent’s thoughts drifted to Ahmed. It’s true that life is a balance between hardship and joy. Everybody suffers. But in Ahmed’s case the balance was decidedly tipped toward suffering, and the joy was only in his memories."
As Eade deftly juxtaposes the lives of two very different Americans experiencing two very different circumstances, he delves into the politics and processes of prisoners and military men alike, exposing the wounds of their experience and psyches and the points at which man's inhumanity stems from a worldview that dehumanizes and rips apart systems and people.
It's a machine-gun staccato of relentless violence, unremitting action, and underlying issues of freedom, sacrifice, and the ultimate results of America's 'war on terror'.
If Eade's intention is to grab his readers by the collar and shake them up with an exposé of detainees who have no freedoms, rights, or hopes under the Patriot Act, concluding with courtroom activities that define the very nature of freedom itself, then he's more than succeeded in providing such a story under the guise of a legal thriller that probes the foundations of America's belief system against the backdrop of terrorist activities.
Have the terrorists won their quest for freedom's erosion, exposing its underbelly of inconsistencies and repression - and will Brent Marks win his quest for justice? That's for the reader to learn in a novel that deftly winds its way around the world and through the hearts and minds of its audience as it provides a compelling, thought-provoking (and not an easy) read.
While readers needn't hold familiarity with Kenneth Eade's prior courtroom thriller A Predatory Kill, be forewarned: such a familiarity will provide background for A Patriot's Act, which continues Brent Marks' globe-trotting international encounters; and newcomers who enjoy this book will turn to its predecessor for another well-grounded, involving legal thriller.
A courtroom would seem the last place to find Marks when a naturalized American citizen goes missing in Iraq, but it prompts him to battle the U.S. government with its own Constitution in search of justice.Right-click here to download pictures. To help protect your privacy, Outlook prevented automatic download of this picture from the Internet.
And events don't stop in the courtroom's boundaries or jurisdiction, either, as they lead to detention and torture in Guantanamo Bay and involve an American citizen who is being pressed for information he doesn't have. In fact, the story opens with the bang of this detention, torture, and its ultimate result. It doesn't end there - so readers are afforded little opportunity to stop reading before they find themselves immersed in the 'who, what, where and why' of what evolves into an international thriller spiced with legal and business concerns.
A wife's determination to locate her missing husband in Iraq against all odds fuels the events to follow, which assume a winding progression of political, legal, and personal encounters.
Be forewarned: there are periods of (and graphic accounts) torture; and while these scenes are in keeping with both the plot and real-world events, that doesn't mean that A Patriot's Act is a recommendation for the light thriller reader. Sometimes the juxtapositions of life at Guantanamo and events back home in the States proves both striking and jarring: "As Ahmed choked and sputtered, the nurse put a mask over his face, and he threw up in the mask, covering his face with his own vomit. Brent placed a luscious bite of Lobster Thermidor in his mouth, savoring the creamy mixture. Debbie, the blonde bombshell, looked on affectionately."
It's all about delicate balance of power and experience - something gone awry in A Patriot's Act, and something explored through intimate descriptions: "Debbie’s home cooking was great, but the company was even better. As the candles dwindled, they drained the bottle of Pinot Grigio. Brent’s thoughts drifted to Ahmed. It’s true that life is a balance between hardship and joy. Everybody suffers. But in Ahmed’s case the balance was decidedly tipped toward suffering, and the joy was only in his memories."
As Eade deftly juxtaposes the lives of two very different Americans experiencing two very different circumstances, he delves into the politics and processes of prisoners and military men alike, exposing the wounds of their experience and psyches and the points at which man's inhumanity stems from a worldview that dehumanizes and rips apart systems and people.
It's a machine-gun staccato of relentless violence, unremitting action, and underlying issues of freedom, sacrifice, and the ultimate results of America's 'war on terror'.
If Eade's intention is to grab his readers by the collar and shake them up with an exposé of detainees who have no freedoms, rights, or hopes under the Patriot Act, concluding with courtroom activities that define the very nature of freedom itself, then he's more than succeeded in providing such a story under the guise of a legal thriller that probes the foundations of America's belief system against the backdrop of terrorist activities.
Have the terrorists won their quest for freedom's erosion, exposing its underbelly of inconsistencies and repression - and will Brent Marks win his quest for justice? That's for the reader to learn in a novel that deftly winds its way around the world and through the hearts and minds of its audience as it provides a compelling, thought-provoking (and not an easy) read.
