Ishmael Covenant

Author: Terry Brennan
Genre: Mystery/Suspense
Series: Empires of Armageddon #1

His marriage in tatters and his career ruined by lies, Diplomatic Security Service agent Brian Mullaney is at the end of his rope. Banished to Israel as punishment by his agency, he's assigned to guard a US ambassador and an insignificant box. Little does he know that this new job will propel him straight into a crisis of global proportions.

Inside the box is a messianic prophecy about the fate of the world. And a dark enemy known as The Turk and the forces of evil at his command are determined to destroy the box, the prophecy, and the Middle East as we know it. When Ambassador Cleveland gets in the way, his life and his daughter's life are threatened--and Mullaney must act fast.

Now agents of three ancient empires have launched covert operations to secure nuclear weapons, in direct defiance of the startling peace treaty Israel and its Arab neighbors have signed. And a traitor in the US State Department is leaking critical information to a foreign power. It's up to Mullaney--still struggling with his own broken future--to protect the embassy staff, thwart the clandestine conspiracies, and unmask a traitor--before the desert is turned into a radioactive wasteland.

Fans of Joel C. Rosenberg, Steven James, and Ted Dekker will relish the deadly whirlpool of international intrigue and end-times prophecy in Ishmael Covenant--and will eagerly await the rest of this new trilogy.

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Reviewer: Beverly Laude

I was intrigued by the premise of this book and thought that it would be along the lines of books like "The DaVinci Code".  Instead, it was more of a spy thriller than I expected.

It took me a long time to really get into this book.  I think part of the reason was all of the different characters.  Then, not knowing that much about the history of the Middle East and all of the religious factions also made it hard to follow at times.

There was plenty of action, but there was also a lot of tedious explanations.  The author obviously is well-versed in the Middle East, Jewish history and Scripture and I learned a lot from the book.

The idea of a mysterious box holding a hidden message from the past was what originally drew me to this book.  But, since the book ended on a cliffhanger, I never truly found out what all the mystery was about.  

The faith and strength of some of the main characters was truly inspiring and I found myself wondering if I would ever be able to have that kind of faith. 

All in all, I would recommend this book for those that really enjoy intricate plot lines involving numerous religious and political groups.  Otherwise, I would say that it takes a lot of effort to read this book. If you are looking for information, history, and/or religious background, give it a try. If you are looking for entertainment, I would say this would be better as a movie.

This book was provided courtesy of Kregel Publications, through Interviews & Reviews, for my honest opinion.

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Reviewer: Camille Murray

This book was interesting to chew on. The cast of characters was large, and the politics complicated, which made it feel true to life. However, while I appreciated the amount of work the author went to in order to make the story as complicated as reality, I also felt that the complicatedness made the story harder to follow, and the large character cast made it hard to fully engage with the main character.
 
The thing I enjoyed most about this book was gaining a deeper appreciation for how things are in the middle east. I feel like I learned something through reading it.
 
Overall, the book was a slow read, except for the action sequences, but seemed very true-to-life.

This book was provided courtesy of Kregel Publications.

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