Reviews

Reviews for Leopards Kill

Leopards Kill has a seductive hold and dangerous thrill like Afghanistan itself. This book will take you there ... or take you back.
- Nathaniel Fick
New York Times Bestselling Author of One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer
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Mixing two parts Apocalypse Now, one part Heart of Darkness, add a dollop of Robert Stone's Dog Soldiers, a dose of Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls, and you have Jim DeFelice's spellbinding new thriller, Leopards Kill. He's the thriller writer's thriller writer.
- David Hagberg,
USA Today Bestselling Author of Allah's Scorpion.

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Publishers Weekly

Leopards Kill
by DeFelice, Jim
    ISBN: 0765314369
    Forge Books
    Reviewed 2006-02-19

DeFelice has fashioned a powerful quest novel out of what could have been just a clever homage to Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Mercury "Merc" Conrad, on a shadowy assignment into present-day Afghanistan, has disappeared with $2 million of CIA money, which the agency wants back. Since Merc saved the life of his friend and business partner, ex-Special Forces soldier Jack Pilgrim, on three earlier occasions, Jack sets out to find and rescue Merc.

The journey takes Jack deep into Afghanistan, a heart of darkness if there ever was one, propelling him to the very edge of civilization and beyond. Jack fights for his life on almost every page with the action slacking off only in the rare moments when he can sit back to rest and ponder questions of morality, loyalty and honor.

DeFelice has coauthored many novels with such thriller writers as Stephen Coonts and Larry Bond, but this and his other solo efforts, including Threat Level Black and Coyote Bird, prove that he can write and fight with the best of them. (May)

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Military.com

Leopards Kill by Jim DeFelice. Forge, $24.95 (335p)

Former Special Forces soldier and Afghanistan vet Jack Pilgrim seems to have it all. After leaving the Army, he'd started a successful security firm, married a gorgeous, sexually-voracious blond, and bought a million-dollar house in the suburbs.

Then, without warning, his life begins to go south in a hurry. He suspects that his wife sees him "as a money machine" and is cheating on him; his business partner and best friend, Merc Conrad, is missing in Afghanistan where their firm is doing a job for the CIA; and the firm's bank accounts have been mysteriously emptied. There's worse: the CIA claims that his partner absconded with $2 million, and they want it back. ASAP.

With his marriage and business in the lurch, Pilgrim flies off to Kabul to find his partner and straighten out the mess. Once there, he finds that all the evidence—more like innuendo and rumor—points to Conrad having fled to the frontier along the Afghan-Pakistan border where he's recruiting a private army to take on the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

Pilgrim assembles a bizarre entourage that includes a Russian whose "face was so ugly it was pretty near ageless," and a psychotic American who's an inveterate liar to accompany him on his search. Together, they set off for the border to find Conrad, and if he's indeed gone native, pull him back from the edge.

DeFelice (Threat Level Black) has adapted Joseph Conrad's classic Heart of Darkness for this troubling War on Terror thriller where disillusionment and despair are the prime movers and the darkness in man's soul is never far from the surface.
— Tom Miller

The above review was posted by Tom Miller on www.military.com in the entertainment section on June 4, 2007.

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04/01/2007

BOOKLIST

DeFelice, Jim. Leopards Kill. May 2007. 335p. Forge, $24.95 (0-765-31436-3).

Conrad's Heart of Darkness has been recast a few times, and while it's debatable whether another re-imagining is necessary, DeFelice's version is a ripping good read. Jack Pilgrim, a former Special Forces operative, now runs a security firm that handles "special" assignments for the U. S. government. When his partner, Merc Conrad, vanished into Afghanistan with a couple million dollars belongs to the government, money that was supposed to finance a mysterious project called Leopard, the CIA presses Jack into service: find Conrad, they say, or we'll turn your life upside down. Jack's journey takes him deep into Afghanistan's uncharted territory and leads to a confrontation with Merc, who has a few secrets to reveal. DeFelice makes no secret of his debt to Heart of Darkness, but the novel works with or without the Conrad parallel: the writing is snappy, the characters well drawn, and the story well told on its own terms, which include some shrewd commentary on the Bush administration's War on Terror.

—David Pitt

Reviews for Rangers At Dieppe

Publishers Weekly

Rangers at Dieppe: The first Combat Action of U.S Army Rangers in World War II
by DeFelice, Jim
ISBN: 978-0-425-21921-8
Berkley Caliber Books
Reviewed 2007 10 15

Defelice (Leopards Kill) takes a fresh look at the disastrous 1942 Allied landing at German-occupied Dieppe, France, from the perspective of the 50 U.S. Army Rangers scattered among the British Commando units and the Canadian 2nd Division, which spearheaded the assault. With an eye on gaining experience in amphibious operations, the 50 Rangers were selected from the 1st Ranger Battalion, formed just months before Operation Jubilee, the code name for the raid at Dieppe. Beset by "poor planning, insufficient training, and inadequate support," the assault -- among a series of raids intended to harass the Germans and boost Allied morale -- was a sanguinary disaster. The Canadians suffered 67% casualties and the Rangers 22%. Noting Dieppe's lack of military importance, DeFelice rejects the notion that it was "a brutal but necessary rehearsal for D-Day," concluding that it was "an unnecessary and foreseeable fiasco." DeFelice honors the courage of the men on the ground, however, including Lt. Edwin Loustalot, Pvt. Owen Sweazey, Cpl. Franklin "Zip" Koons and Sgt. Alex Szima. Carefully researched and vividly told, this popular account of the blooding of the now iconic Rangers will appeal to fans of military history." (Jan.)

Kirkus Reviews

Rangers at Dieppe:
The first Combat Action of U.S Army Rangers in World War II
Author: DeFelice, Jim
Review Date: November 01, 2007
Publisher: Berkley Caliber
Pages: 304
Price (hardback) $24.95
Publication Date: 1/2/2008
ISBN: 978-0-425-21921-8
Category: NONFICTION

Prolific novelist DeFelice (Leopards Kill, 2007, etc.) turns to nonfiction and brings to life a disastrous World War II encounter.

American infantry first battled Nazis in August, 1942, when Allied forces raided the coastal French town of Dieppe and suffered massive casualties. There were only 50 U.S. Rangers among 5,000 Canadian and British attackers, so previous accounts have paid little attention to their contribution. DeFelice tracked down survivors and additional documentation that helped him produce a vivid, detailed picture of the Rangers baptism by fire. The elite unit had just been formed in June 1942, and when word of a major special operation reached its leader, Major William Darby, he selected 50 men for "advanced training in demolitions"-- combat experience. Describing the raid's planning and execution, the author resists the urge to blame a single culprit for the debacle. Historians generally agree that Allied leaders yearned to take pressure off retreating Russian forces, Churchill loved special operations and planners made a string of wrong decisions, rejecting a heavy pre-invasion bombardment and assuming that the defending German divisions were weak. The Rangers shared in the general failure and the minor successes. Small commando units landed east and west of Dieppe to successfully silence coastal defenses. Large Canadian forces made a suicidal frontal assault on the unexpectedly well-defended town. Most of the Americans did not make it to shore because of problems with their landing craft; three died, three became prisoners and only four returned uninjured. With lucid prose DeFelice knowledgeably contradicts some aspects of previous accounts.

A valuable contribution to the history of a catastrophic raid.

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