Fast-forward three years and 18 months after 9/11.  John Corey is still working for the Anti-Terrorist Task Force (ATTF). He is now happily married (for the third time) to Kate Mayfield who is still with the FBI and ATTF. Corey is still the brazen, irreverent, sarcastic but brilliant detective who recalls (while trailing and then punching in the genitals of an Iranian diplomat considered a spy) the "evil killing machine from Libya...."

While Corey ponders, Asad Khalil, "The Lion," with the help of Al Qaeda returns to Los Angeles with an Egyptian passport, still intent on avenging his family. The Lion's first stop is the last remaining pilot, Chip Wiggins, who is brutally tortured and then killed. Subsequently, he hops on a chartered plane for New York. The skydiving gambit which follows is not to be missed. You will be sitting on the edge of your seat.

Sadly, the actions falls off rather dramatically and DeMille reverts to a descriptive police-procedural till the denouement and the inevitable confrontation between Corey and The Lion when the action is again five star.  

 Although the plots of both books are similar, The Lion is much more tightly written (and more than 200 pages shorter than The Lion's Game). There are sections which are laugh out loud funny as Corey describes his innermost cynical, sardonic and politically incorrect thoughts to the reader. The Lion is much more a novel about John Corey; instead of alternating chapters about the two protagonists, DeMille divides the book into seven "Parts."

At the end of the day, the banter and cynicism of John Corey win out over the sometimes rambling descriptions of locales and characters and the result is a nearly explosive conclusion (pun intended).    

--Jerry Solot