Coup d'Etat: Dewey Andreas, Book 2

My younger sister got me started on this series by Ben Coes, i.e. ‘The Dewey Andreas Novels” and I do want to thank her for it. I had not idea she even read this genre, much less liked it...learn something new everyday, huh! This is the second novel in this series and yes, some of the ‘bad guys’ from the first book, “Power Down” are featured in this one but we have an array of new wretched villains. Many of the good guy characters are present in this one along with some interesting new ones. A new President has been elected in Pakistan, a religious nut job, who immediately drops an atomic bomb on India in an attempt to ramp up his fight against the infidels. If India responds by obliterating Pakistan, which they are capable of doing, they in turn will be destroyed and China and the United states will be drawn into the fray...to the destruction of all. It is decided that the only way out of this mess is to ‘remove’ the president of Pakistan, i.e. kill him, and replace him with a more moderate leader. Who is to do this deed; this most dangerous need which must not fail? Our stone cold killer, former Ranger and DELTA, Dewey Andreas, now working hidden on a ranch in Australia is the only solution...this is one hard guy! Not only must Dewey deal with the assignation of a well guarded world leader, but he must also avoid being captured and tortured by an Arab billionaire and Jihadist who still holds a major grudge against Dewey for killing his son...yet another wretched dirt bag. The action in this one is almost non stop. Yes, as with all action thrillers the reader must put their credibility sensors on hold for a bit, but let’s face the fact that this is a fictional work meant to entertain and not a manual of how to take out a world leader without getting killed yourself. It is fiction; a story, a tall tale and it is well written and a lot of fun to read if you like this sort of thing. I found the body count to be pleasingly high.

An absolute page turner that I mostly enjoyed reading. Unfortunately, lack of attention to details sometimes lowers the enjoyment factor for me and that's why I only gave it 4 stars - would have done 4 1/2 if it was available. For example, when the protagonist is talking to people in English but they don't speak the language. Also, when an Israeli special forces guy get killed when a bullet hits him in the chest. What kind of special forces won't have some kind of protective vest on? But these are really nits. The story line is very up to date with current affairs. The plausibility of easily getting to various heads of state requires a lot of suspended disbelief, but who cares? The action is constant and Coes comes up with imaginative plot lines. Dewey Andreas is a fun character a la James Bond - one everyone wants to be like and one who seems to be able to escape virtually any situation. Plus he's American! Love this series.

It's rare I give out 5 stars for a book and a key criterion for this designation is how tough it is to put the book down -- on this one, I stayed up late and snuck chapters in throughout the day. It's simply that good. In this non-stop geopolitical thriller (the second one featuring the hero Dewey Andreas), tensions between Pakistan and India, along with the jihadist president of Pakistan, Omar El-Khayab, threaten global stability. Partially driven by the terrorist Aswan Fortuna (featured in the first novel), the tensions threaten to draw China and the United States into a global war. Dewey Andreas, who stopped Fortuna's terrorist son in the first novel, has withdrawn to an Australian ranch to lead a normal life. He learns Fortuna, who is funding El-Khayab, has dispateched a kill team to eliminate him. With the geopolitical tensions and a need to quickly respond before India launches a nuclear war, the U.S President and his team quickly tap Dewey to lead a team to stop the madness. I read Mr. Coes first novel and rated it lower, mainly because of story flaws and inconsistencies. In this one, Mr. Coes has perfected his art, smoothing out wrinkles and presenting us with a dynamic, engaging and non-stop action novel. The technical detail on the equipment is Clancy-like and his research on historical and geographical aspects has been really fine-tuned here. The plot is extremely refined, complex with engaging nuance and fast-paced. The climax is gripping and the resolution is extremely satisfying and well-done -- Coes doesn't stop after the primary action but allows as a very gratifying epilogue. Brilliantly done, Mr. Coes, I applaud and thank you.

I read book eight in this series (the latest one) and after giving it a five star review, I purchased the other seven books in the series. I finished the first book in this series earlier this week and have now finished reading this novel (the second in the series.) Ben Coes, as an author, has improved in this novel over the first in the series, although not quite up to the latest book, it is still very enjoyable. If you are going to read this series of books - do so in order of publication, as the books do build on the prior installments. Although, I must say the author brings the new reader up to speed fairly quickly without a full rehashing of all of the prior story line. This series centers around the character of Dewey Andreas - a former Ranger/Delta operative, that has tried to avoid that world, but keeps getting dragged back into it. In this installment, he has gone to one of the remote "stations" (ranches) in Australia to get away from the results of the first book in the series - he remains there unmolested for a year - while the father of the key terrorist he killed in the first book hunts for him. Needless to say, they find him (otherwise there would not be much of a story). He is warned by his sometimes girlfriend, and eludes the terrorists, and is then dragged into the India/Pakistan war that has started. Enough of the plot line - if you like complicated plot lines this one is pretty good - a bit more straight forward than the superb plot in the first book, but still decent. Unlike the first book in the series which had a high number of firearm errors, I really only found one that stood out - the author mentions that one of the terrorist bodyguards is carrying a "Glock 33 .357 Magnum". The Glock 33 is actually chambered for the .357 SIG round. The SIG round was developed in the 1990's to give a semi-auto pistol similar stopping power to that of a revolver firing a .357 Magnum round, but the correct designation is 357 SIG. At times one must suspend reality and to just go along with the plots in these books, the characters, although they bleed, and scar, it never seems really slow them down.

The first Dewey Andreas thriller by Ben Coes was very good; "Coup" was even better. Kashmir, the perpetual flashpoint between India and Pakistan, is the site of an incident that quickly escalates into a full-blown conflict; it is all the worse that the two countries are nuclear armed. Pakistan has a new, democratically elected president who is a jihadist and the book title tells you what must happen in order to keep a nuclear catastrophe from spreading out of control. The clock is ticking. Dewey Andreas has removed himself to a ranch or "station" in Australia, mostly to keep National Security Advisor Jessica Tanzer from becoming collateral damage, but the father of Alexander Fortuna (see Book 1), will do anything to find and kill him. And Dewey seems to be the best choice to sort things out for Washington. The action is as fast and tense as anything you are liable to read this year, and there are a fair number of "how the heck is he going to get out of this one?" scenes. But like Mission Impossible's Ethan Hunt, Dewey always finds a way. And this is an action hero who is tougher than Jack Reacher, more ruthless than Jonathon Maberry's Joe Ledger, and altogether heroic. The choice of the sub-continent was a refreshing change of locale, and the political imperatives of Pakistan, India, and the US were plausible. The military escalation at the outset was very well done. I was not persuaded by the looming threat (to India) posed by China, which had the effect of severely limiting American options, but that was the only issue I had with what was otherwise an all too believable scenario. Late in the book the jihadist president of Pakistan is given the name "Khomeini", and one wonders how such a typo could have slipped by or whether it was intentional. I am now a Dewey Andreas fan and will be reading all of the books Mr. Coes cares to write.

Coup d' etat, being the second book of Ben Coes, gives more thrills to the reader. Ben Coes has done an excellent work into his research, provides more details as to the work and the background of the Intellegence Agancies, the tactics and equipment of Special Forces and combines all with a deeper and more dense plot, with the always expected impossible scenes of an almost indestructible ex Special Forces central hero. The narrative is simple and to the point, with elements of lyrism and poetic mood, shows that the author can use a good English language, being more close to literature than only describing cinematic scenes. Still there are two points that need attention. The first being some oversimplifications, for example this "Coup d' etat" although hard to implement, still can be effected in almost 24 hours, in a vast and chaotic environment as that of Pakistan, during the period narrated in the book. It should be harder to effect and of course Pakistan is a more complex country than some Banana Repuvlic The second is the technical aspect, of weapons, where, we still see mis-information (probably bad research) of guns being "semi-automatic" that normally are not automatic but self-loading. And of course the main hero, Dewey Andreas, will need to cover some distance, maybe we will see this to the third book (cause I have not read it yet) and start being more flexible, mith more shades of grey in his characterizations, than the black & white, 6ft 5in boulder like figure, of an ex Special Forces guy. More work here please Mr. Coes with great references being Lee Child (Jack Reacher), Bard Thor (Scot Harvath) and maybe even the Bond, James Bond of William Boyd in "Solo". Not to forget to mention the Jason Bourne character of Robert Ludlum (and not of Eric Van Lustbader - !!!) Read this book by all means. Start with the first book, go for this and be ready for the third. So you can see how the author improves his writting, his plots and his characters, his narrative, his everyhting. Way to go Ben - enjoy your reading for the audience

The Author does an excellent job of encouraging the reader to like and root for the main character. Non-stop action and intrigue. I've read two of his books in the last couple weeks. Page turners for sure and I definitely recommend them. Only draw back is I sense the Author doesn't care for Canadians. Both books had a couple harsh slams towards us. (I know - Boo Hoo, suck it up). However, it's like having a chat with someone new; you think you may be developing a good friendship, then he insults your Mother. As I spent 23 years in the Canadian Army with 4 years posted to Norfolk working with the US Navy, I seem to recall getting along quite well, as we are on the same team after all. Perhaps Mr. Coes had a bad experience with Canada during his time in the White House. I admit, it's difficult to enjoy a novel when your Nation is getting poked with cheap shots, regardless, his books are worth a read in spite of all of the errors and inconsistencies noted in the other reviews. Cheers!

This is the second Ben Coes / Dewey Andreas novel I have read. The other one was Power Down. I think I liked the Dewey Andreas in Power Down more than the Dewey Andreas in Coup d’Etat. But it’s the same character you say, and I would respond ‘yes, but not really’. The Dewey Andreas in this story is much more of an indestructible superhero rather than a highly skilled special forces’ soldier who narrowly escapes death. Anyone who might recall Dirty Harry and how his partners always died, then you can relate to Dewey Andreas because it is almost guaranteed that being around him in a firefight is almost certain death. Dewey’s friends in Australia die; Dewey’s teammates in Pakistan die; and most of the Israeli commando team that saves Dewey from his arch enemy also die; but Dewey survives all of these encounters. It pushed the envelope of believability a little too far for my tastes. But I recognize that many other readers would probably enjoy Dewey’s almost mystical ability to avoid serious injury. Even with the over the top superhero invincibility, I enjoyed the story. However, verisimilitude went right out the window starting in Chapter 55 when Dewey suddenly and unexpectedly became an expert in counseling a Pakistani military officer in the art and science of coup d’état. Where he obtained his education in such things is anybody’s guess, but it certainly doesn’t come from anything that the author had put in Dewey’s resume prior to this point… and that means a resume coming from one and one-half novels. While I normally tolerate the constant and formulaic flipping back-n-forth between sub-plots that has become so commonplace in the thriller genre in order to artificially sustain suspense (FYI: no fireside storyteller would ever use this gimmick… his audience would stone him), I found the technique annoying in this story. The segments were too short. As such, when I finished Chapter 24 (which dealt with the ‘Dewey in Australia’ sub-plot), I skipped to Chap 26 in order to stay with the Dewey thread, then I skipped to Chap 28, then to Chap 30, then to Chap 32 and 33 until that portion of the Dewey thread came to a logical conclusion. It was much more satisfying than to be continually manipulated with artificial Lone Ranger serial-like breaks in action. And you know what else happened? I didn’t need to go back and read Chapters 25, 27, 29, and 31 because the end of Chap 33 provided all the information needed to understand what was contained in those chapters I had skipped. Like another few reviewers pointed out, there are no such things as Kevlar-tipped bullets, but I think the author (or a poorly informed editor) meant to call them Teflon-tipped bullets which are called ‘cop killer bullets’ because they are armor piercing and can penetrate Kevlar vests. But even with the glitches that I’ve noted, I still enjoyed the story and would willingly and happily recommend it to anyone interested in the genre.

pas pu le poser!!passionnant et tellement plausible!des personnages auxquels on peut s'identifier et plutot attachants.j'ai adore ce livre ,je recommande

The starting of the story was a little dull but as it proceeded further the things became lit .nice series by ben coes . definitely should read it .lots of adrenaline. Book quality is good , it reached on time so overall I loved this purchase

Love Dewey novels

This, the second book in the series, is a real scorcher! I really enjoyed it and look forward to reading the rest of the series. The storyline is a fast running account of some endearing characters in an explosive situation. A must read!

Following in the footsteps of giants like Tom Clancy and Vince Flynn, Ben Coes burst onto the publishing scene in 2010 with “Power Down,” which Flynn described as “One of the must-read thrillers of the year.” Coes and his brilliant book “Power Down” hero, Dewey Andreas, are back in fine form in Coes’ latest thriller, “Coup d’Etat.” When a fragile peace breaks down between Pakistan and India, the United States is forced to intervene. When a rapidly escalating war threatens to engulf the entire region, the president must find a way to shut it down immediately―or else face total destruction for the world at large. With the clock ticking and Pakistan in the hands of a religious radical willing to do anything and risk everything to achieve his deadly plan, there is only one man with the skills and experience to infiltrate the live war theatre and successfully execute a nearly impossible, unbelievably daring plan. His name: Dewey Andreas. His mission: to remove the Pakistani president from power. Now all the White House has to do is find him…before time runs out..... After the dramatic ending of “Power Down,” Andreas has left the United States, looking for some peace and quiet working on a ranch in rural Australia, far from the turmoil. But Fortuna’s father, Aswan, is seeking revenge for the death of his son and is using all his vast resources to track down and kill the man responsible for his son’s death – Andreas. And now, Hezbollah assassins hired by Aswan have found him, forcing Andreas to fight for his life against a well-armed and well-trained group of killers. After violently avoiding capture and dispatching most of the assassins, Andreas is ready to flee Australia...... Andreas is a wonderful action hero – strong, courageous, confident and trained in dozens of ways to kill a man. He embodies the best of what we want our soldiers and our heroes to be. It’s no surprise that Coes worked in the White House under Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush. Returning villains, returning heroes, an array of great characters, a lesson in history, a lack of sleep as I read and read to finish this fast paced, action packed rollercoaster of a action thriller. An epic of a story, as his first book was, Coes keeps the standard and story telling to an immaculate pace,With two great main characters in Dewey Andreas and Jessica Tanzer. Love these books. Five stars