cover image The Last Refuge

The Last Refuge

Ben Coes, read by Peter Hermann. Macmillan Audio, unabridged, nine CDs, 11.5 hrs., $39.99 ISBN 978-1-4272-2568-9

In Coes's latest thriller, Israeli special forces commander Kohl Meir is kidnapped in New York City and transported to an Iranian prison. The kidnapping is all part of an Iranian plan to deploy a nuclear weapon in Tel Aviv. And when the politically astute, plain-thinking United States president suffers a fatal heart attack and is replaced by a na%C3%AFve vice president, it's up to former Army Ranger Dewey Andreas to save the day. Narrator Peter Hermann%E2%80%94who ably creates a range of accents and dialects for the book's international cast%E2%80%94delivers an appropriately gruff, hard-boiled delivery. But the unrelenting grimness of his narration creates such a downbeat mood that even Andreas's astonishing accomplishments fall a bit short of triumph. A St. Martin's hardcover. (July)