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Benedict Hope once worked in special ops for the British. He was in the elite SAS—Special Air Service—and might have been considered the most dangerous man in the world. Now, however, after the murder of his new wife, he wants to start over and go back to studying theology at Oxford. As he pours over his religious texts, a tutor of his, Tom Bradbury, asks him to help locate his missing daughter Zoë, a famous archeologist but also a headstrong and difficult young woman last seen on the Greek Island of Corfu. Hope sends his friend Charlie to investigate, but Charlie soon feels out of his depth and sends for Hope. A bomb goes off at the café where they are meeting, Charlie is killed, and Hope realizes that the stakes are higher than he had thought. In short order he is killing people who are trying to kill him, covering them with sand and leaving them for the crabs. Using bits and pieces of information, he heads out on a plane to Savannah, Georgia. The plot has many complications, including wealthy widows, corrupt evangelists, rogue CIA agents, blackmail and remote locations such as Montana and Jerusalem. There is a background of Biblical argument that is referred to at various times. The author uses ideas from various books of the Bible to illustrate the idea, propounded by certain evangelical Christians, among others, that the world will end in some particularly horrendous way, and that this apocalypse will be happening soon. Something that Zoë may have discovered in her dig may be related to some aspect of this, and there is ongoing speculation about exactly what this might be. The ancient prophecies are very important to some people in this book, and they seem ready to kill to find out what she has uncovered. Meanwhile, the body count keeps going up whenever Hope is around. We witness him killing and maiming whole groups of assailants with all manner of weapons. Some of these victims have names, but many are just nameless big guys in dark suits. The major confrontation between Hope and the bad guys takes place on a rundown farm in the Montana wilderness. Singlehandedly, Hope shoots down three helicopters and watches as dozens of men burn up in the flaming fuel. He is shot at one point, but a beautiful and trustworthy CIA agent who has studied medicine takes the bullet out of his shoulder. The task of rescuing of Zoë takes up most of the book and has many successes and setbacks. Even when the reader may think all is well, there are more plot complications to come. Hope, however, is up to the challenge. Ben Hope is the quintessence of unstoppable hero. He will always keep going and he will get the bad guys in the end. He will foil their insidious plots, save the world, and make sure that each one comes to a gruesome end. For those among us who enjoy following the exploits of such a character, this is a fulfilling book. THE HOPE VENDETTA appeared as THE DOOMSDAY PROPHECY when first published in the UK. Anne Corey is a writer, poet, teacher and botanical artist in New York's Hudson Valley.
Reviewed by Anne Corey, January 2012
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