Terry Brennan’s new book (and series) takes us to the Middle East at a time of conflict. Ishmael Covenant tells the story that three ancient empires of the East—Persian, Ottoman, and Islamic—appear to be on the cusp of rising again. And a shady character in the US State Department seems to be involved in helping one of them. His contact is double-dealing with another of the potential empires.
Enter Diplomatic Security Service Special Agent Brian Mullaney, who is assigned to protect Joseph Atticus Cleveland, the newly appointed US ambassador to Israel. Mullaney had been in Turkey, but “they” wanted him out of there along with the ambassador. They are sent to Israel where Brian must guard the ambassador, his daughter, and a small, but deadly box. A diabolical power called “The Turk” will stop at nothing to get the box and its contents.
I eventually loved the book, but the beginning is slow. I kept saying to myself, “Get on with it. Enough of the backstory. Put me in the action and then tell me details that I need to know succinctly through the characters.” If you persevere until the action starts, you’ll be caught up in the story, the characters, and the denouement. Brennan writes of plausible events where heroes battle evil and the unseen world. I’m anticipating the second book in the series which is to relase in July. Four Stars.
To quote his PR, Terry Brennan is the award-winning author of The Sacred Cipher, The Brotherhood Conspiracy, and The Aleppo Code, the three books in The Jerusalem Prophecies series. His latest release, Ishmael Covenant, is the first in his new Empires of Armageddon series. A Pulitzer Prize is one of the many awards Brennan accumulated during his twenty-two-year newspaper career. The Pottstown (PA) Mercury won the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing for a two-year series published while he led the team as the newspaper’s editor. Starting out as a sportswriter in Philadelphia, Brennan became an editor and publisher for newspapers in Pennsylvania, Illinois, and New York and later moved to the corporate staff of Ingersoll Publications (four hundred newspapers in the United States, Ireland, and England) as executive editor of all US newspapers. In 1996, Brennan transitioned into the nonprofit sector, spending twelve years as vice president of operations for The Bowery Mission and six years as chief administrative officer for Care for the Homeless, both in New York City. Terry and his wife, Andrea, now live in Danbury, Connecticut