Joseph Mitchell
Smokescreen is a masterpiece from Philip Cooper. The book centers around the country of Greece and its prime minister. Having just saved Greece from the hands of the previous administration, Alex Kalfas -The present Prime Minister of Greece- once again battles to maintain the peace which he restored.
From trying to acquire mines illegally to the use of force and assassination, the antagonist really put up a fight and tried everything in his power to bring down the government of Greece.
Containing more of action, political scenes and a little bit of Economic analysis, Smokescreen had me engrossed in every page trying to take in each detail as it was being given by Philip.
Alex Kalfas stole my heart once again like he did with the first part of the series. He has really come a long way for someone who was promiscuous to be the Prime Minister of Greece. Brave in character and loving in personality, Alex protected his country with all he had and also had help from the Americans. Being a father made me love him the most as his relationship with Gitta was finally taking a turn for the best.
This is my second read from Philip’s work and I must say, he has improved a lot. I’d advise reading up the first part -Rape of the Aegean- in order to get a better understanding of the book. Assassinations, arsonry, torture, down to love making all made the book the masterpiece it is.
The action scenes were the best so far for me. Reading them made me feel as if I was watching it in a cinema and I must say, the book had loads of it. The book made me panicky at some point because of the manner of killings being carried out by the terrorists. Thankfully they got what was coming for them. This I would say made me mesmerized by the book and had me turning each page without dropping it till I go to the last page of the book.
We still don’t know who Cyclops is but my intuition tells me it’s Leonidas, the industry minister. I think each chapter should be started on a whole new page and not the regular continuation from a previous chapter’s page as we saw in the book. Kudos to Philip as I must say that he maintained his theme and passed out his message effectively.
Having many R-rated scenes, teenagers most especially below the age of 18 should reconsider reading the book. People who love arts and culture, especially tourists, would find this book interesting as it had every detail about the Hellenic Republic. I would give the book a five out of five stars rating. Can’t wait to read more works from the author.