The Bathsheba Deadline: An Original Novel Review of Jack Engelhard's THE BATHSHEBA DEADLINE (Paperback)
By Cinnamon Stillwell - online columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle
On one hand, a scintillating love triangle based on the biblical story of King David, Uriah and the beautiful and desirable Bathsheba, The Bathsheba Deadline is also a clever and wonderfully perceptive look at contemporary journalism and the post-9/11 political backdrop.
Indeed, political junkies looking for fiction straight out of the headlines need look no further. Engelhard captures a country, and a world, caught up in conflict and haunted by the specter of the unknown. It is a time in which the modern and the ancient all too often collide.
The novel touches on such pertinent political and social issues as the Middle East conflict, the treatment of women under Islam, mixed Jewish and Christian heritage, America and the war on terrorism, and the role of journalism amongst it all. Indeed, the main setting for the novel is a fictional daily newspaper called The Manhattan Independent and its main characters are its managing editor, book editor and a reporter.
Author Jack Engelhard gives much credit to the growing influence of online journalism and the blogosphere, or what he labels in the novel, "Bypass Journalism." Online journalism is in fact starting to supersede print and television and Engelhard knows it.
Seeing as he himself is an accomplished online columnist, as well as the author of previous novels, one of which, "Indecent Proposal," was adapted (after having Arab/Jewish themes erased by Hollywood's political correctness censors) for a film of the same name, his observations are right on the money.
But the book has much more to offer than journalism or politics. Filled with romance, sex, witty banter, philosophical reminiscences, heart stopping thrills, a no-nonsense (and, I might add, sexy) lead man and an ever-alluring femme fatale, The Bathsheba Deadline is an entertaining ride.
It's the kind of novel I found myself nodding in knowing agreement and smiling or sighing in shared sentiment throughout. Beyond the great characters, the elegant writing, and the charming slices of life, it touched on so many issues that I found personally and politically relevant that I couldn't help but be drawn in.
(For more reviews of this book and other Jack Engelhard titles, please visit www.jackengelhard.com. See Works.
1 comment:
I'm pleased I once again see an opportunity to plug BATHSHEBA DEADLINE. To paraphrase a famous review of a famous book by the same author: Is this a great gift idea? You betcha!!
At each sitting, I was unable to put [[ASIN:0595470793 The Bathsheba Deadline: An Original Novel]] down until I had read at least twelve-fifteen chapters. It's that good....it's better. TIMELY, TIMELESS, FAST-PACED, TRAGIC, CONTROVERSIAL TRIUMPHANT...ITS ALL OF THOSE AND MORE BESIDES.
Thank goodness for self-publishing...the traditional New York houses would NEVER let this one see the light of day. There is too much TRUTH in it...not the manipulated facts you see in the media.
You wanna knows what's going on in this world of ours? Read this book.
It's that simple.
This Holiday season, give the gift of TRUTH...all nicely wrapped in a story that will challenge your blood pressure.
The characters are entertaining, authentic, larger than life yet so very human. Jack draws on his years of experience as a journalist to recreate the excitement, forbidden desire,ambition and backstabbing of the newsroom of the MANHATTAN INDEPENDANT [circulation close to half a million]. The story combines the fast-paced Manhattan scene and the terrorist-infested world in which we live here and now with the ageless story of fatal attraction between a tough,if pleasantly self-critical, successful man and tough, successful, gorgeous, thoroughly feminine woman.
In the background throughout are several subplots spinning their way to masterful conclusion....all as seen and told through the eyes and agendas of truly first-rate characters, from the protagonist Jay Garfield, the zealous and sad Sam Cleaver, through the 100% all American Arab Jimmy Smokes and the scheming Peter Brand to the unfathomable,nutty and fatally-charming Lyla Crawford.
BATHSHEBA DEADLINE is the story of something unusual and exciting for most readers, a newspaper in the thick of controversy, yet something as timeless as a steamy love-triangle...a love triangle in which the two willing members may have a way of getting rid of the third.
Jack Engelhard has another classic here...a controversial politico-romantic thriller of the first water. Beautifully populated with great characters and a story line, as Cinnamon Stillwell writes, "right out of the headlines"...and the Bible. Five Stars! John W. Cassell
John W. Cassell is the author of six novels on the American Counterculture of the 1960's-1970's and a politico-military thriller: [[ASIN:1592992773 Uncertain Paradise: 1973]]. The sequel to this latter book, UNCERTAIN PARADISE: 1973 *** The Latter Days*** Is set for release by January, 2009.
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