ALEXANDER HAWKE
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Full Name: |
Alexander Hawke |
Nationality: |
British |
Organization: |
Presidential Agent |
Occupation |
Agent |
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Creator: |
Ted Bell
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Time Span: |
2003 - 2020 |
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ABOUT THE SERIES
Alexander Hawke is a go-to guy for the President.
Hawke is a very rich man, Chairman and CEO of a major conglomerate, who loves adventure and hates injustice. He also happens to be a very close friend of the President of the U.S. from many years before the man ran for office and comes to the aid of his friend on several occasions. Additionally, he is on occasion intimately familiar with the female Secretary of State.
When he was 7, he was cruising the Caribbean with his parents when they ran afoul of modern-day pirates. Hidden by his father, he watched in shock their brutal murders, trauma which affects him to date. Rather than cripple him, however, it strengthened him and gave him a deep need to fight bad guys whenever he can. It is a bitter irony that Hawke would realize later that he was a direct descendant of a legendary English privateer who had also prowled the same waters.
With the death of his father, young Alexander inherited an incredible fortune and an estate and title in England, making the boy the latest in a line of Lord Hawkes. As he grew into manhood, Hawke chose to put aside the privileges of wealth and join the Royal Navy and during that lengthy service became very skilled in naval combat, earning numerous medals and commendations for his actions. Eventually the duties of his company demanded his attention and he reluctantly left the military to become head of his corporation.
Hawke is assisted in his adventures by a varied and extremely interesting band of people. The action often moves to these other players but the author is very good at making sure the excitement never leaves.
BOOKS
Number of Books: | 11 |
First Appearance: | 2003 |
Last Appearance: | 2020 |
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1 |
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Hawke
Written by Ted Bell
Copyright: 2003
When a new stealth submarine carrying 40 nuclear warheads goes missing, it is feared that a neighboring country holds it and the fate of the US. Alexander Hawke is asked to help.
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2 |
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Assassin
Written by Ted Bell
Copyright: 2004
The highly visible murder of several American diplomats around the world is just the beginning of a larger plan to destroy U.S. credibility. Alexander Hawke is determined to stop it.
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3 |
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Pirate
Written by Ted Bell
Copyright: 2005
A strange alliance between a wildly anti-American French leader and Communist China is putting the squeeze on the U.S. and the President asks Alexander Hawke to find out the truth.
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4 |
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Spy
Written by Ted Bell
Copyright: 2006
Alexander Hawke is trapped for a while in the Amazon and, after a harrowing escape, is determined to rescue other hostages and find out what the group holding them is up to. That group is finalizing their plans for a major unpleasant event at the US Presidential inauguration.
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5 |
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Tsar
Written by Ted Bell
Copyright: 2007
A new force is rising in Russia, anxious to become an all-powerful leader as in days of old. He is using a brutal killer to eliminate Americans with ease as a sign of what comes from interference. Alexander Hawke is a target.
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6 |
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Warlord
Written by Ted Bell
Copyright: 2010
Hawke is still trying to deal with personal loss when his old friend, the Prince of Wales, asks his help with death threats from someone well connected and determined to inflict pain. Though he has no desire to do much of anything, Hawke cannot ignore the request.
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7 |
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Phantom
Written by Ted Bell
Copyright: 2012
Working with his MI6 friend, Alexander Hawke is out to uncover the reason for a series of technological mishaps that should never have happened, indicating that someone has started major cyberwarfare against the West.
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8 |
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Warriors
Written by Ted Bell
Copyright: 2014
Alex Hawke's helping of his Scotland Yard inspector friend's investigation of a murder is just the opening act in a play that will bring China and the US to the brink of all-out war.
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9 |
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Patriot
Written by Ted Bell
Copyright: 2015
Russian leader Vladimir Putin has gotten his hands on a very nasty weapon that could put the nation back at the top of the super power list. It is up to Alexander Hawke to take it away from him before he changes the map of Europe.
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10 |
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Overkill
Written by Ted Bell
Copyright: 2018
An explosion on a ski tram in the Alps separate Alex Hawke from his son. It is not long before Hawke realizes the horrifying truth that his son has been kidnapped. Getting him back is the top priority and those in the way will pay but nothing like those behind the snatch.
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11 |
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Dragonfire
Written by Ted Bell
Copyright: 2020
Still recuperating from wounds received on a mission, Alexander Hawke receives a summons from the Queen. Her favorite grandson has gone missing in the Bahamas, last seen at a ritzy nightclub called Dragonfire. That establishment is owned by a pair of brothers, grandsons of a crafty Chinese bigwig who has been planning something for decades.
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GRADE
My Grade: A-
Your Average Grade: A
YOUR OPINIONS
Sir Gerald
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A+
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5/9/2012 12:37:36 PM
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Sorry but I've tried two of these and although they had elements that normally capture my imagination the totality of the effort just didn't work. Boys own stuff.
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cch20
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A+
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7/27/2012 12:55:39 PM
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My dad passed Assassin on to me. I was caught up hard within a few pages. The constant changing of locations, twists & some really bizarre behavior hooked me. Alex Hawke is better that Bond.
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raybaraesq
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A+
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8/27/2012 8:04:05 AM
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I love this series. I can't read them fast enough. This is the one current series that I truly can't wait for the next installment.
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zulutime
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A+
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1/24/2013 9:43:28 AM
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B, at best at this time. Too wordy, must be being paid by the word.
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zulutime
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A+
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1/28/2013 7:59:47 AM
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Finished second book (SPY) in series by Ted Bell. Again it gets a bit wordy and off track with descriptions that muddle the tale. The writing is a constant up and down between- "why is this here, too much information" to "hey, this is good stuff" very staccato in its presentation. Makes to want to skip over stuff.
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David
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A+
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4/19/2014 10:30:30 PM
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The most uneven of the current top thriller writers Bell is prone to some absolute drivel (his England never did exist not even when P.G. Wodehouse was writing about it) Hawke is so wonderful you half hope he'll fall on his face, and there are huge gaffs (in one book he informs readers Hawke drove from Gibraltar to Cannes in two hours --- what at, light speed, it's close to 1,000 miles by land, the whole Spanish Corniche and most of the French one). His Stoke is just insulting as a black character and Ambrose Congrieve makes John Dickson Carr's Dr. Fell look like realism.
But he does manage some high nonsense of an entertaining type, and I keep coming back thinking he will get his act together. He never does but at least he believes in his own absurdities and that helps. I manage to get past the nonsense and enjoy them anyway, though not in the way I do Rollins or Cussler.
I would recommend these as the literary equivalent of a summer blockbuster, but his Never never land version of the British countryside, the aristocracy, and the forelock tugging peasants is absolute horse hockey, and in his most recent book he tries to force the oldest plot extant, the computer that wants to take over the world, down our throats, and despite an attempt to dress it up with a bit about Singularity just trots out the same old computer trying to wipe the human virus off Earth plot that was overused back in the early sixties.
He does do marvelous set pieces, and Hawke has some splendid toys, but I lived and worked in England at a fairly high level and Bell's version belongs in Disneyland. Even for high concept you have to pay some attention to reality. Bell seems to never have heard of Great Britain's greatest threat to Hawke and his ilk --- the Inland Revenue.
Still, at least he doesn't call Prince Charles 'Chuck" like Clancy idiotically had Jack Ryan do in Patriot Games.
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jc
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-
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2019-05-05
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Agree with three other comments here for the same reasons they state. In comparison with Baldacci, Battles, Box, Patterson et al, Bell is poor quality.
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jc
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-
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2019-05-05
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Books 4 and 5 are reversed on this list. On the author''s site ''Tsar" is #4 and ''Spy'' #5.
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dbuhler
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B
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2020-09-02
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Why all the A+ ratings, when we agree that Bell and Hawke are simply second rate. To read Cumming, Steinhauer, and Maxim is to be in spy grad school. To read Bell is to revert back to middle school.
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