And thus begins the action-packed “The First Hostage” by Joel C. Rosenberg, which picks up immediately following “The Third Target,” the series’ first installment.
Injured foreign correspondent J.B. Collins is forced to report back to his foreign editor, Allen MacDonald, that U.S. President Harrison Taylor has gone missing immediately following the ISIS attack at a peace summit in Amman, Jordan.
What follows is an intense novel as Collins joins forces with the King of Jordan to beat the timeline and not only locate the missing president, but also hunt down ISIS leader Abu Khalif, who has kidnapped Taylor, and stop further terrorist attacks.
“The First Hostage” is a great piece of literature, and one that is quite timely for today’s news stories. Rosenberg offers an exciting geopolitical thriller that also briefly touches on the theme of the need for God, as Collins is faced with situation after situation that make him question not only his need for, but his desire for God and His protection.
Rosenberg does a great job with this novel’s pacing — just as the action is getting too intense to take he slows it down with a scene featuring things like a war room conference or a character’s personal reflection on their life or the situation at hand.
Although this book is fairly long, it is a very fast read that will draw you in until the very end. And I’m guessing, from how the book ends, that there will be another installment in this series.
This book, thankfully, also contains a list of characters, which helps keep the different players straight, as well as a preface from “The Third Target” explaining what had just happened in that story for those of us who may have not read the first novel. Both of these items were quite helpful.
A great and impactful read. I dare you to be able to put it down!
Five stars out of five.
Tyndale House Publishers provided this complimentary copy for my honest, unbiased review.
“The First Hostage” (J.B. Collins series, #2) by Joel C. Rosenber