Imagine a Russian politician who would be Tsar named Ivan Korsakov who wants to restore Russia to its place as the most powerful nation in the world. Korsakov's company, Technology, Science, and Applied Research (TSAR) has purchased the top 32 floors of the Empire State Building in New York. Korsakov is to receive the Nobel Prize in physics.

Now remember Alexander Hawke, British Lord, who will save the world from evil once again. Think, Savor, Arrive, Remember = TSAR.  

TSAR begins with Alex resting and rehabbing on a secluded beach in Bermuda from his previous exploits in Spy when he meets beautiful, blonde Anastasia Korsakova, Ivan's daughter. In true James Bond fashion they fall in love despite the obvious obstacles in their path and her father's protestations to the contrary.

Later, Anastasia takes Hawke to meet Korsakov at his magnificent winter palace in Tvas, Russia and then they travel to Moscow where Hawke is arrested and placed in Energetika Prison with none other than Vladamir Putin whom Krosakov exiled because he was too powerful. Of course, Putin helps Hawke escape from the inescapable prison and come to the rescue of America and the rest of the world.  

Ted Bell incorporates the modern concepts of Russian irredentism, annexing the Baltics and East Urkaine back into the Soviet Union, the Russian history of the Tsars, the technology of computers with built-in explosives, new adversaries like Paddy Strelnikov from Brighton Beach and Yuri Yurin from Russia with our old friends Hawke, Pelham, Hawke's 80 year old butler, Chief Inspector Ambrose Congreve of Scotland Yard, CIA Chief Brick Kelly and agent Harry Brock and of course Stokley Jones into a most appealing international thriller.

Tsar starts very slowly but don’t despair. As you reach the denouement in the final third of the book, the action moves at an exciting pace to the expected conclusion. With its action, drama, beautiful women and exotic locales, Tsar is a four star addition to the Hawke series.

--Jerry Solot