Page 55: The Panther

Nelson DeMille brings back the husband and wife team of John Corey and Kate Mayfield in another terrorist related plot.  This time they are sent to Yemen to find a terrorist called the Panther.  The Panther is an American Jihadist whose family originated in Yemen, emigrated to America, and settled in Perth Amboy, New Jersey.  The Panther has returned to Yemen as a member of Al Qaeda to raise havoc with the Yemeni government and infidels who dare to visit the country.

This is no simple plot.  John and Kate find Yemen to be quite complicated and very dangerous.  Nearly every male carries an AK-47 and the women adhere to the strict Muslim tradition of not being heard or seen..  This provides some complications for Kate, but they are dealt with the best she is able.  Many of the embassy staff who venture outside the protection of the embassy compound wear Kevlar vests and carry weapons.  Yemen is no ordinary country.  John continues to wise crack his way through the course of the book and provides much needed comic relief.  If you have read any of the previous books John and Kate have appeared in such as The Lion you get the idea.  I read/listened to the book on the Audible version narrated by Scott Brick.  He does a great John Corey as well as the other characters.  I think they are portrayed more realistically than may be accomplished in the printed version.  Of course, this is a matter of preference for the reader and all of us have our own preferences

There is plenty of action from the arrival of John and Kate at the airport in Sana'a to the finale.  One of the characters is Buck who works in intelligence for the State Department.  Buck has done his research on Yemen, been there before, and provides a running travelogue that results in many unspoken thoughts and spoken words from the irreverent John Corey.  John is a wise guy, but one you want on your team when going after the bad guys.

Here is a summary of the plot from Amazon Books:

"Anti-Terrorist Task Force agent John Corey and his wife, FBI agent Kate Mayfield, have been posted overseas to Sana'a, Yemen-one of the most dangerous places in the Middle East. While there, they will be working with a small team to track down one of the masterminds behind the USS Cole bombing: a high-ranking Al Qaeda operative known as The Panther. Ruthless and elusive, he's wanted for multiple terrorist acts and murders-and the U.S. government is determined to bring him down, no matter the cost. As latecomers to a deadly game, John and Kate don't know the rules, the players, or the score. What they do know is that there is more to their assignment than meets the eye-and that the hunters are about to become the hunted.

Filled with breathtaking plot turns and told in John Corey's inimitable voice, THE PANTHER is a brilliant depiction of one of the most treacherous countries in the world and raises disturbing questions about whether we can ever know who our enemies - or our allies - really are."

I think this is one of the best John Corey and Kate Mayfield books by DeMille.  Read it and let me know if you agree or not.