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janiceh's review against another edition
4.0
A fun read - now that I am finished I want to go back and read the previous books with this main character, John Wells.
roastedsalted's review against another edition
Sometimes totally deluded authors manage to write entertaining fiction.
jamikrut's review against another edition
2.0
I was disappointed in this book and you can read my full review at
abookofadifferentcolor.blogspot.com.
abookofadifferentcolor.blogspot.com.
coatekm's review against another edition
3.0
Fun easy read- kinda wished for more though- interesting story and background but I was more excited about what could have been done with the history and location than I got
snarlet319's review against another edition
4.0
John Wells never fails to thrill. The politically & morally nuanced stories always show the many levels of right and wrong, and the consequences of choices we make.
perri's review
4.0
I'm not familiar with this series but starting in at #7 didn't affect my understanding or enjoyment of the story. I really like the Wells character, but unfortunately the other characters were pretty one dimensional and kept acting in ways that didn't make sense to me. Also, I was ready for the book to be done about 50 pages earlier. Three and a half stars
brettt's review
2.0
Though officially retired from the Central Intelligence Agency, John Wells retains many of the skills and much of the mindset that made him the only successful agent to embed with the Taliban during the lead-up to 9/11 and the war in Afghanistan. So when a friend of his estranged son goes missing while working for a charity operation in Kenya, the son convinces Wells to talk to her parents.
That conversation itself prompts him to take his own trip to the area and see if he can learn anything and rescue the four young people now known to have been kidnapped for ransom. But the charity head seems a little hard to pin down, and the events themselves don't smell quite right to Wells. And when he learns he will be dealing with a Somali warlord, he realizes few of the connections and little of the experience he has in the Afghan mountain country will help him in the no-man's-land of the Kenya-Somalia border.
Berenson has obviously done his research for Night Ranger, highlighting how many of the power players in the essentially lawless countries where these charities operate often use them for their own ends. Although he's taken Wells out of his war on terror milieu, he's given him some new reasons to push himself, in order to help his son's friend and possibly begin to rebuild their relationship. But Ranger seems like a sewn-together patchwork of incomplete parts -- there's no real resolution to the situation involving the charity director, and although Berenson starts to explore how the crisis has a toughening effect on a previously shallow young woman he only dabbles in it and never fleshes it out, either. Making John Wells a little less of a weapon in the war against terrorists and a little more soldier of fortune is probably a good broadening step for the series, but Berenson will need to tighten his storytelling focus and finish out his narrative elements in order to make that move successful.
Original available here.
That conversation itself prompts him to take his own trip to the area and see if he can learn anything and rescue the four young people now known to have been kidnapped for ransom. But the charity head seems a little hard to pin down, and the events themselves don't smell quite right to Wells. And when he learns he will be dealing with a Somali warlord, he realizes few of the connections and little of the experience he has in the Afghan mountain country will help him in the no-man's-land of the Kenya-Somalia border.
Berenson has obviously done his research for Night Ranger, highlighting how many of the power players in the essentially lawless countries where these charities operate often use them for their own ends. Although he's taken Wells out of his war on terror milieu, he's given him some new reasons to push himself, in order to help his son's friend and possibly begin to rebuild their relationship. But Ranger seems like a sewn-together patchwork of incomplete parts -- there's no real resolution to the situation involving the charity director, and although Berenson starts to explore how the crisis has a toughening effect on a previously shallow young woman he only dabbles in it and never fleshes it out, either. Making John Wells a little less of a weapon in the war against terrorists and a little more soldier of fortune is probably a good broadening step for the series, but Berenson will need to tighten his storytelling focus and finish out his narrative elements in order to make that move successful.
Original available here.
borisfeldman's review
3.0
Another "eating potato chips" novel about John Wells. This one, about hostages in Africa. Fun read. Still hungry later.