“Book Review: Bishop’s Law”

Bishop’s Law is exactly the action-packed sequel to Bishop’s War that we needed.

Despite the fierce efforts against him in the first novel, Army Sergeant First Class John Bishop is very much alive and ready to save our country. Author Rafael Amadeus Hines introduces an elaborate terrorist plot against the United States in this one—and gives us one hell of a main character to fight against it.

Bishop’s Law is the second novel in this series. Here, the decorated soldier has been home in New York City for six months, and since his arrival, he’s been fighting a bloody battle against foreign adversaries infiltrating the homefront. Fortunately, his cousin and his buddies have his back, but it’s up to him to lead the charge and bring safety back to America.

And lucky for us, Bishop was born ready for this.

An ISIS-allied commander based in Iraq and Syria has set his sights on blowing up New York, and nothing would satisfy him more than to kill Bishop first. Meanwhile, the last of the Tringas, a race of humans who have been trained and bred for a thousand years to be vicious assassins, are settling scores. But these are not the only threats faced by Bishop.

The son of a dead billionaire is using all methods in his power to eradicate Bishop, including asking favors of federal judges and collaborating with a hit man. Part of this billionaire villain’s strategy involves turning the Russians against Bishop’s extended family. If you thought Bishop was up against the odds in the first book, just wait until you crack open this riveting sequel.

The hero is worth the price of admission alone in this novel. Military thriller readers everywhere can identify and root for Bishop’s bravery, perseverance, and undeniable skill. He takes beating after beating and keeps on bouncing back. Although he can’t quite “come to grips with the unfairness of it all”—that is, with the suffering of his family and the perils his fellow Americans still unknowingly face—“he understood that he’d been somehow chosen for this.” The story hovers between the hellish realism of war and a more fantastic proposal of the varied forms that terror networks and government corruption could assume. The immediacy and complexity of these fights pull the reader into an immersive action-packed world in Bishop’s Law.

In any thriller of this nature, the reader must expect to bid farewell to characters who die early bullet-ridden deaths. But not every author can pull them off quite as successfully as Hines does here. The action in these scenes is multi-faceted and yet easy to imagine, sending our imaginations right into battle with our favorite characters. Military readers with an appreciation for weapons and gear will also meet their match in the authoritative way they’re described.

The Bishop series springs up from the trauma of the September 11th attacks and the wars that followed. It’s often difficult to consider the risks of life and limb with these hostile contacts between the US and the Middle East—because so much is classified or lost in the fog of war—but we can get closer to that experience through this series. In this way, this gutsy, action-driven novel fulfills our insatiable need for honest, dynamic, and effective war stories.

John Bishop is a character with recognizable depth. He cares about his family and his country. He is a newlywed, and his wife is pregnant. And he’s a soldier capable of leading us through battles to save a nation. With the third novel, Bishop’s Honor, expected for 2021, there will certainly be more adventures waiting for him. And I, like Bishop, am going to be ready for it.

Category: Military Thriller

Paperback: 484 pages

ISBN: 978-0997091946

Purchase on Amazon

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