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Ben Coes
latest book, Eye For An Eye, has a very gripping
story. His compelling characters must deal with the loss of
someone who was intelligent, vibrant, and funny. As a result
of a chain of events that were set in motion in his last book,
The Last Refuge, his main character, Dewey Andreas, must deal
with those who murdered his fiancée.
The plot begins with Dewey uncovering the identity of a mole
embedded in Israel's Mossad by the Chinese intelligence. Fao
Bhang, the head of China's Ministry of State Security, discovers
the brutal elimination of the mole and responds by placing
a kill order on the man he considers responsible, former Delta
Ranger, Dewey Andreas. The kill team traces him to Argentina
but instead of killing Dewey, murders his fiancée.
The rest of the book involves Dewey seeking revenge. It becomes
a cat and mouse game to see who will get revenge first, Dewey
or Bhang. In the course of their chase there are very descriptive
scenes a la Fast and Furious that enhance the pace of the
plot.
Coes explained to blackfive.net why he eliminated the fiancée,
"I was afraid of getting into a situation where my hero
gets married and what role his wife would take in future books.
It also allowed me, from a plot point of view, to create a
way to pit Dewey against Chinese intelligence. I did not want
to write about an easy, happy ending, because in the real
world people die. What I wanted to portray is how Dewey gets
really messed up, as do others when someone close dies."
The author gets this point across by using the phrase throughout
the book, "There is only one thing to do. There is only
one thing you were meant to do - fight." It was done
to show Dewey's need to focus on the job at hand, getting
revenge, and not on the emptiness that comes from losing a
loved one. There is a lot of violence that will jar the reader,
and Dewey definitely does not come across as a charm-school
graduate.
Revenge is the common theme throughout, but there is also
a warning to Americans about the Chinese government. Coes
considers them very ruthless and without much moral fiber,
which comes across in this book. He sees China as a threat
to America's national security, "This book says exactly
what I think. China has spent billions of dollars to build
technology that has deep tentacles within the US. China uses
its financial clout to inject itself into different countries'
economies. The US is vulnerable due to our financial reliance
on them. The weapon they use is money. Instead of bullets
they fire money. There is a tremendous amount of cash reserves
and I wanted to show a scenario where they take their inventory
of US bonds and sell it for fifty cents on the dollar. China
really scares me."
A scene that was edited out but later written as a short story
was The Third Door. Coes explained that it was meant
to be the first chapter in this book. Because he thought it
was powerful and was an epilogue to The Last Refuge, readers
were able to download it when pre-ordering this thriller.
What makes The Third Door very relevant to Eye For An
Eye is that its plot also deals with the issue of revenge.
Because he wanted to include something of himself and to show
the President and Dewey's personality in a benign area, there
is a scene involving hockey. There is a weekly pick-up game
whose participants include the President, the Chief Supreme
Court Justice, and many other officials. Dewey board checks
a powerful Democratic Congressman from Chicago to get his
revenge after the Congressman blindsided him. Anyone who enjoys
hockey will like this play-by-play action. Coes commented,
"There is definitely a part of me in every book. I play
hockey, and my children also play. It's a great sport. It
is Dewey's type of sport, tough. With Dewey it is all about
righting wrong."
Eye For An Eye is a fast-paced thriller with compelling
characters. Unfortunately, Dewey and his team lost a person
that was a very critical component who also humanized Andreas.
The book skillfully shows how Dewey pursues justice against
those who are responsible for destroying his dream.
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