Type of bind: Hardcover
Format: Bargain Price
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 528
Printing Date: January 06, 2000
Sale Popularity Level: 658560
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Product Description:
When Asad was just 16, an American bomb killed his mother and four siblings. Twelve years later he is in New York City, determined to avenge their deaths by killing all five of the surviving pilots. John Corey, now working for the Anti-Terrorist Task Force, must find and stop him.
Amazon.com Review:
John Corey and Asad Khalil have both lived hard-knock lives. As revealed in Nelson DeMille's monster bestseller Plum Island, the gruff, wisecracking NYPD homicide cop Corey stopped a hail of bullets--but he couldn't stop his wife from walking out on him. Asad, raised under Muammar Qaddafi's eye after his dad's murder, lost his surviving family in the 1986 bombing of Libya. He's heard the nasty rumors about his mom and the colonel, but he aims his rage at the infidels. The boy's got such a gift for terrorism he's earned the nickname 'the Lion,' and Boris, his vodka-sozzled, sex-addicted émigré mentor, knows precisely how to conduct a murder tour of America one step ahead of the police, the FBI, the CIA, and the ATTF (Anti-Terrorist Task Force), which combines members of all three. A pity Boris must die, but hey, he's an infidel too.
Asad pretends to defect, handcuffed to agents aboard a 747 bound for JFK, and he proves to be a worse seatmate than a siding salesman. Corey and his ATTF colleagues (most conspicuously the FBI's sexy Kate Mayfield, Corey's match in badinage and bad-guy busting) strive to halt Asad's methodical yet unpredictable bloodbath. Skillfully, DeMille alternates chapters told from Asad's and Corey's points of view. DeMille did his authenticity homework: when we're not savoring his gift for wiseacre dialogue in the Corey-Kate chapters, we're sweating alongside Asad on his ghastly, ingenious jihad.
The New York Times put DeMille's social satire on a par with Edith Wharton's, and he's great on the colliding folkways of the feuding, mutually doublecrossing crimebuster institutions. Naturally, he's on the side of the regular-guy flatfoots. 'Cops sit on their asses and flip through their folders,' he writes. 'Feds sit on their derrieres and peruse their dossiers.' And the CIA gets it in the shorts, satirically speaking. One deplores the mass murderers, but the book's real bad guys wear the priciest suits.
DeMille reportedly has a $25 million book contract. With fast, funny, absorbing thrillers like The Lion's Game, he's earned it. --Tim Appelo
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Rated by buyers -
The Lion's Game is a great, but long read with a double narrative. At first, I was concerned about whether or not I would get lost in this approach, but DeMille took careful steps to avoid a spaghetti bowl of words.
The Lion's Game follows former NYC Det. John Corey, now a member of an elite anti-terrorist unit for the government. Don't worry, he's still the same old Corey, only this time his showdown is with a meaner than a snake terrorist from Lybia.
Although I enjoyed The Lions' Game, I did have a problem with the inability for some characters to see what the Lion's game was all about. Key things happen and are revealed to the task force that should have made them go "Oh yeah! That's what he is up to!" Because of my love for the character John Corey, I wrote off his inability due to his over stimulated libido. However, at times, he turned into a knucklehead.
I agree with one of the reviews written here. The best way to read a DeMille book is to go in without having an idea of plot. However, that will not make a difference with The Lion's Game. You'll know what the bad guy is out to do way before the good guys get close to figuring it out. The disappointing thing is that you get the information to help you figure it out when the good guys get it.
Overall, a fun read that could have used some great editing. DeMille could have shaved 100-200 pages of this bad boy. Still, I recommend it, if you have the time.
Rated by buyers 
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DeMille is a master of suspense and this is one of his best. As always, interesting characters and a writing style that makes you feel like you know then and are right in the middle of it all. I started reading this book the week after 9-11 and had to put it down. Terrorists, a plane and NYC was a just a little eery. I finally picked it up again this for a recent vacation read.
Rated by buyers -
Nelson DeMille is becoming one of my favorite authors and I've only read two of his books (The Lion's Game and Plum Island). Detective John Corey returns with another case, this one involving many federal agencies and concerned with the transport of a Middle Eastern man with suspected connections to terrorism. Reading dialogue that describes people wishing for the destruction of the World Trade Center (the book was published in 2000) yesterday is chilling. There are a few plot holes that involve secondary and tertiary characters from Plum Island (notably Beth), but overall the book is a great read.
Rated by buyers 
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This book, The Lion's Game, falls under the same category as most of Stephen King's work - not serious literature but enjoyable stuff, a so-called "page-turner". The thing was huge, almost 1,000 pages, but it was quick read. It was a suspenseful tale about a Libyan terrorist coming to the United States for pay back to the Libyan air raid in 1986. It was published before September 11th, 2001; I'm not certain how well novels about terrorists would sell today, since it has become clear it's more than just a fun read. The ending, I'll say, is disappointing.
Rated by buyers -
If not for the excellent story, I would have gone with 3 stars. The novel starts off very well with a good suspense drama playing out. The book ends very well. The story is an excellent thriller, which is very well written at the beginning & end. At over 920 pages, I wasn't crazy about the middle. The middle story is a bit long in the tooth with the hero's dialogue. Broken into alternating chapters of heroes & the villain, I found myself rapt with the villain's chapters & only scanning through the drawn out monotony of John Corey & Kate Mayfield. Corey's wise guy sense of humour also grows old. It's a bit much & over the top. The character becomes wearisome. If you can make it through the middle story of this novel, by all means read it. The story itself is excellent. Corey, unfortunately is another matter
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