New Book Alert: 8 Seconds to Midnight (Commander John Hart Series) by John Leifer; Winning Political Thriller With Strong Plot and Memorable Characters on Both Sides

New Book Alert: 8 Seconds to Midnight (Commander John Hart Series) by John Leifer; Winning Political Thriller With Strong Plot and Memorable Characters on Both Sides


By Julie Sara Porter
Bookworm Reviews 

8 Seconds to Midnight by John Leifer is very similar to one of those political thriller movies where the bad guys make a threat to use a weapon to cause destruction and the good guys try to prevent that from happening.
But it is much better than the standard one-dimensional action film repertoire.

Instead, 8 Seconds to Midnight has some strong tense moments of plot and action, but it plays more like a chess game in which two sides of memorable characters scheme against each other to either cause or stop the deaths of countless lives.
In the previous book, CIA’s counter terrorism expert Commander John Hart tried to stop biological weapons that were set to go off in major airports. He succeeded and the virus was eliminated but still 85,000 Americans died.

In this one, the United Islamic State terrorism organization led by the sinister Ibraham al-Bakr plan to steal a nuclear device from the Pakistani government. To do that, al-Bakr has to recruit allies such as General Malik, who has been disgraced because of his involvement with the biological weapon in the previous book. Malik is commanded to provide al-Bakr with the information and assistance to pull the theft of the device off.

Meanwhile, Hart and his colleagues are concerned about silence on the networks. They usually hear some chatter, but no news is definitely not good news. That usually means something is happening. Their worst concerns are proven correct when they hear of the theft of the device. Now it's a race between the United Islamic State to steal and arm the device and Hart's team to stop it before it goes off.

There are some great moments of suspense concerning the two camps. The theft of the device takes quite a few chapters, but it is filled with suspenseful moments where al-Bakr assembles his team using blackmail, threats, and their misguided sense of revenge, money, or protectiveness for their families to his advantage.

Things get pretty tense when they arrive at the base and have to go through various checkpoints to get to the device. The suspense is particularly felt within the character of Major Barr, a soldier coerced into siding with the terrorists. His character is scrutinized expertly as several times, he finds an opportunity in which he could alert authorities or shoot the terrorists himself but does not. This internal dialogue reveals how a person can be torn between their actions and conscience.

The means in which the terrorists act are repellant, but interesting from a storytelling point as they use various methods at their disposal to achieve their goal including obtaining recruits from around the world. Three sleeper agents are recruited in America to use their expertise in physics and metallurgy to put the bomb together and send it on its way to where it could do the most damage.

Another agent that is solicited is Sarah Quaisrani, AKA, “The Arctic Fox” so called because she lives in seclusion in the snowy landscape of Canada and because of her equally cold-blooded nature. She harbors no allegiance to Allah, al-Bakr, or to anyone else but herself. However, she carries herself with an icy clever detachment as she delivers the bomb to New York City and puts local and Federal law enforcement on a wild goose chase involving various disguises and doubles.

Hart's chapters are also filled with unbelievable tension and suspense as his team try to catch up with al-Bakr's. Many times he has to rely on testimony from allies and relatives of the terrorists to obtain information.
In one chapter he and Niya Jamali, a female spy appeal to the sympathies of Malik's daughter, Ayesha Naru, a doctor who has treated various war victims. They remind her that many people, children especially, will die if she doesn't tell them about her father's whereabouts and allegiances.

What sets this book apart from many others in the genre is the care that Leifer gives to writing not only the protagonists but the antagonists as well. Hart is a fully developed character with some traumatic regrets in his life such as the death of his brother as a child and failed missions that propel him to do his duty. He has some sweet moments with his fiancée, Liz Wilkins, a doctor with the CDC who is just as dedicated to her profession as Hart is to his.

Hart also has a strong moral compass which acknowledges wrongdoing even when it's done by his country. When Ayesha comments on the death toll that were direct and indirect results of the United States, Hart has no answer for her except to try to prevent more of them.

Even some of his interrogation methods such as threats and abuse are similar to the people that he is fighting against suggesting that in such conflict, the sides aren't really that different from each other. The motives might be different, to take or spare countless lives, but the means to get there may be more similar than most people think.

Leifer also shows his gift for writing in how he writes the antagonists. Instead of being cardboard villains, they are well defined by their motivations to join the United Islamic State. Some are drawn by a strict religious upbringing. Others out of revenge for the deaths of family members. Others simply for financial gain or for power. Their decisions to take part in such violence are made clear and are not glossed over.

To find out how an enemy organization works, one must discover why they work. Why would people join such a group? What motivates them to take part in such violence? Liefer shows that with the personalization of the various terrorists. The Reader is not meant to necessarily agree with them, but to understand who they are and why they choose such a life that guarantees death.

Leifer also achieves a feat not found in such books and movies. With many action stories, there is a realization that countless lives could be lost. But that thought is not seriously dealt with. Not so in this book. No matter what move Hart and his colleagues make, deaths are bound to happen. Even when an action results in a lesser tragedy, they are still made aware of the destruction and loss of life, that while less than expected is still way too many.

8 Seconds to Midnight is that rare kind of thriller that has plenty of action, but isn't just content to give us that. Instead the behaviors of the characters on both sides propel the action making the Readers think while they enjoy the ride.