Title: The Datura Solution: Book 1 in the Max Foreman Series
Author: Patrick Faure
Publisher: XlibrisUK
ISBN-13: 978-1-5144-9389-2
Pages: 350
Genre: Action, Adventure
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Pacific Book Review
Max Foreman is both cursed and blessed. He is horribly unlucky but ineffably skilled. He seems destined to negotiate seemingly impossible tests of physical and mental endurance but perhaps there is no one else who can accomplish such missions. Max is heroic in his ability to survive and achieve objectives but the dark side to his story is that others will perish in his wake. He is sophisticated to a fault, but a Hollywood-esque action hero in practice.
In between missions, Max visits a fortune teller in London who informs him that “Death is his companion.” Max will have a long life but Death will be with him. As a result, Max is destined and conscripted to complete incredibly dangerous missions with the inevitable collateral damage to follow. Max finds himself in one impossible jam after another. Yet if you can suspend disbelief, as many do while watching or reading action movies and novels of this genre, then The Datura Solution: Book 1 in the Max Foreman series will have you completely drawn in to this provocative story of action, sex, violence and espionage.
Max is a covert agent for the military. He is multi-lingual, a philosophy scholar, and has learned to endure just about any physical situation. During a mission in Algeria, he became drawn into a series of events, which eventually involved Russian politics and organized crime. His path inevitably crossed one: George McMillan, a morally corrupt diplomat and George’s wife Lena, a Russian model and heir to a fortune. The story is, at times, graphic and this underscores the novel’s penchant for detailed and dramatic action and consequences. The author Patrick Faure certainly knows how to paint a picture with dramatic detail and description.
Max’s companion is death, but that seems to affect everyone but him. The fortune teller’s prophecy turns out to be correct. His story is almost over the top. One mission or circumstance chaotically propels Max into another snare like a chain reaction with no apparent ending. It is action-packed, draining, and provocative: all the elements of a time-honored spy genre.
As being the book 1 of a series, I am certainly a fan of Max Foreman, and look with anticipation the future episodes from the creative and unique mind of Patrick Faure. I can envision the Max Foreman Series to have a high likelihood of becoming a blockbuster movie or made-for-TV series.
