Rafael Amadeus Hines

Bishop's War is a story that grabs you from the very beginning and doesn't let you go until the end. However, the end will leave readers with many questions, which the author admits in his post words that a second book is coming in the future.

The story is excessively violent and extreme in action / adventure. John Bishop and his cousin, Felix, are both indirectly related to the biggest crime syndicate Don in New York / New Jersey. John is a Green Beret just coming out of a war in Afghanistan. After 12 years of fighting wars, he's looking forward to spending more time with his family and girlfriend. Many of the side stories and back stories are inter-related to one another, and all impact John or his family. Professional Assassins, who have never failed, are sent after him; the Director of Homeland Security also has a vendetta against John and Felix for embarrassing him and causing him his job...he joins those wanting to see John and his cousin, Felix, dead.

The two of them are celebrated heroes for stopping a terrorist group from setting off an awesome car bomb that would have killed thousands in a New York park, then suddenly, the two of them are sanctioned by the NYPD, FBI, CIA, etc. to find and destroy the terrorists. There is so much taking place in the story that it's impossible to list them all in a review. If you want to be entertained and don't mind continuously losing your breath, aren't squeamish about torture scenes, and don't mind over-the-top super hero type warriors, then this book is for you!

Mr. Hines does make John invincible - a perfect shot always killing his opponents with a single headshot. So many things within the story would never happen in real life...but who cares! Go Rambo, Go! The only reason I haven't given five stars in my review is due to the excessive errors throughout the story. It seems that many of them occurred during the editing process where one or more words were not removed after the correction. Nevertheless, it was quite a ride when overlooking the errors and Rambo-esque escapes from traps that the main characters continue to experience.

I was entertained and will purchase Rafael Hines' next installment about John Bishop!

John Podlaski, author
"Cherries - A Vietnam War Novel" and "When Can I Stop Running?"… (plus d'informations)

I got over 1/2 way though and decided I just didn't care much for the characters. Which is unfortunate because I think the author is a really good writer. John Bishop, our protagonist, is a special forces soldier who's just left the military. But he's been brought up in a Mexican crime family based in New York. This in-and-of-itself could be very interesting. The problem for me, though, is that there doesn't seem to be any friction between our hero (who IS a hero both militarily and when he comes home) and his crime syndicate uncle. I know life's not black and white—clearly defined bad guys and good guys. But I didn't like the idea of cheering for a character who's so closely tied to the Mexican mob, even though Bishop's going after Islamic terrorists in the Big Apple.… (plus d'informations)